Battlestar Universia
by Electra Flare
Summary: The Cylon attack left the Colonies burning along with their inhabitants. However the Cylons failed to completely exterminate the race. Reviews welcome. Name may change to Phoenix.
1. Chapter 1

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

**A story by**

**Craig. E Lundy**

"Sometimes tragedy is just around the corner."- Anonymous

_**Dramatis Personae**_

Rear Admiral Eoin Lundy, Battlestar _Universia_

Colonel Lauren Patience, XO of Battlestar _Universia_

Major John Whelp, CAG of Battlestar _Universia_

President Richard Adar

Commander William Adama, Battlestar _Galactica_

Secretary Laura Roslin

Commander Aidan Devlin, Battlestar _Sola_

Colonel Samuel Jordans, XO of Battestar _Sola_

Commander Jake Young, Battlestar _Oceania_

Colonel Alice Halleron, XO of Battlestar _Oceania_

_**Ships of BSG 40**_

**Valkyrie- class Battlestars**

_Universia_

_Sola_

_Oceania_

**Bezerker Cruisers**

_Ionia_

_Nuclear Winter_

_Hades_

_Calypso_

_Dark Sword_

**Scythe- class escorts**

_Corona Flare_

_Isis_

_Neptune_

_Hera_

**Gungnir- class heavy cruisers**

_Deep Impact_

_Hestia_

_Kobol_

**Enjoy :)**

Space. Life began out here. Those were the first words of the Sacred Scrolls.

_Pffft._ _More bullshit than an Aerilon dairy farm_, Rear Admiral Eoin Lundy thought to himself. Sighing, he looked down at his tactical table. As usual, there was nothing in the space near the edge of the Cryrannus system.

"Anything on DRADIS?" Eoin asked, though he already knew the answer. The DRADIS operator, Lieutenant Simpson looked up from his console.

"Just some civilian ships and the remains of a War- era Basestar, sir," he said. The Cylon War, forty years ago. He was young- twenty five- and wasn't around then. Not that it would matter, since his homeworld of Libran was never attacked by the 'Toasters'.

"Okay. Comm traffic?" he asked.

"Normal, sir." The look the man gave Eoin confirmed his fears. This man obviously disliked him. Many people did. They thought his father- Libran's Quorum Representative- had pulled strings to get him away from his dinky little escort and onto _Universia_, a _Valkyrie _class Battlestar. Which was very true, and he deserved nothing of his rank. Youngest Rear Admiral ever is a daddy's boy.

"Carry on then."

Eoin turned back to his tactical console.

"Bored?" came the sweet voice of the XO, Lauren Patience. She was a year younger than him. Eoin had brought her with him from his previous assignment. Almost immediately Eoin felt his heart beat a bit faster once he saw her again. She was gorgeous- long blond hair and a perfect face and figure. Great personality too.

"Yeah, mostly housekeeping," he replied. Did he love her? Yes, he did. Did she return his affection? He didn't know- he was too nervous to find out.

"I'll take over if you want to get some rest," Lauren said.

"Thanks for asking, I'm frakking tired. You have the conn," he said with a smile, and he walked to his quarters.

While he walked, he thought about his life. How does a twenty-five year old end up as an Admiral? Partially due to his father, though he did do some himself.

**Flashback- Three months earlier**

"Commander, we're picking up an abandoned Baseship on DRADIS, and a civilian ship has docked with the basestar," the sensors operator informed.

"What! Tell them to get the frak away! Those things are dangerous!" Eoin shouted.

"Sir! Massive energy surge from the Basestar! It's powering up!"

"Those frakking retards must have reactivated it and any centurions still on it! Set condition one throughout all ships, and ready all batteries," Eoin ordered as the klaxons started whining.

"Not your typical day," Lauren remarked.

"Tell me about it. Status on weapons?"

"All railcannons and point-defense systems are ready, and Vipers are in the tubes!"

"Sir! The baseship destroyed the civvie ship!" Simpson shouted.

"Distance to target?"

"Eighteen miles commander."

"INCOMING! Over thirty missiles inbound!" Simpson screamed.

"Flak batteries to full! All ships, target the Basestar!"

As the missiles were intercepted by the flak barrage, BSG 40 moved into its first combat mission. The _Scythe_- class escorts created an overlapping flak barrier around the Battlestars, as _Universia's _bow railcannons flashed sending four slugs towards the basestar, which then impacted with large explosions.

"Confirmed damage!"

"Sir! Raiders inbound!" Simpson said.

"Launch the alert vipers," Lauren ordered.

As the Raiders neared the flak barrier a wave of sixty Vipers rocketed towards them.

"First wave of Vipers are away and the second wave is getting ready," Lauren said to Eoin.

"Sir, _Sola _and _Oceania_ are firing on the baseship now," Simpson said.

"Helm!" Eoin shouted to Petty Officer David Elroy.

"Sir?"

"Move us so that our port batteries are facing the basestar!"

"Yes sir!"

"All port batteries fire!" Eoin ordered as the 20 dual railcannons on the port side opened up sending forty slugs towards the basestar which made no attempt to evade. Huge holes were opened up in the basestar's hull.

"More missiles inbound, and the Raiders have engaged our Vipers," Simpson said. Outside the Vipers and Raiders began their deadly dance. Several missiles made it through the flak barrier and impacted against the _Universia's_ hull.

"Damage report!"

"Nothing major sir, mostly cosmetic damage!"

"Sir the basestar is breaking up," Simpson reported.

After taking several more hits the basestar, outnumbered and outgunned, was blown apart as it's raiders were mopped up by the Vipers.

"Congratulations commander!" Lauren said with a smile as the Basestar winked off the DRADIS. The CIC erupted with joyous cheering.

**Current Time**

Destroying that Baseship made him a Rear Admiral. His father had only gotten him to commander, so maybe he deserved a bit of his rank. He walked into his corridor and settled down in his rack for some rest.

**CIC, Battlestar Sola**

"Status?" Commander Aidan Devlin barked.

"Nothing new sir."

"Tell me something I frakkin' don't know," the Commander grunted. Aidan was known for being a strict commander but the man had a friendly side and was good friends with the Admiral. Samuel Jordans, his XO, was a different can of worms. Insorbinate and rude. He was also one of the smartest people Aidan had ever met.

"How long until next leave, Sam?"

"Three frakking months, Aidan. This assignment sucks balls. Patrolling the same frakking area over and over again," Sam said.

"Can you please get on like an officer and tone the language down? Just because you're in the navy doesn't mean you need a sailors mouth."

"Wouldn't be the same me," Sam said with a charismatic smile.

"Pity."

**Virgon, Atlantia class Warstar **_Atlantia_**, Admiral Nagala Commanding, Colonial counteroffensive **

The Warstar _Atlantia_ had been drifting without power for sometime now. She and more than a thousand other ships were preparing to battle a similar sized cylon fleet, when suddenly every ship in the fleet had lost power. The cylons were most likely tearing through the defenceless fleet now. It made Nagala shake with rage.

When reports came that many of the Colonies had been destroyed from orbit with nuclear ordnance Nagala assembled the main fleet to defend Virgon, the only surviving Colony. He amassed many battlestar groups. He had one hundred of the fleets battlestars, with twenty not reporting in or confirmed destroyed. His fleet was mostly made up of eight-hundred meter long _Bezerker_ cruisers and _Gungnir_ heavy escorts. In addition he had the warstar _Helios_ and his own unique warstar, the five kilometre long _Atlantia_. It was no doubt, this would be humanity's last stand against the machines.

"Sir, we have overcome the cylon e-war attack, powering up. It looks like the rest of the fleet is powering up as well," the sensors officer said. Nagala nodded, a grim smile on his face. The DRADIS screens bleeped into life, and he saw that they had lost three hundred ships out of their twelve-hundred they had to start with. The cylon fleet remained the same. Nagala picked up the wireless and set it to the fleet wide setting.

"All units, this is Admiral Nagala. I won't lie to you, this will most likely be our last stand. But if we think of the colonies that are burning around us, we will find the strength to overcome the threat to our integrity. Below us is Virgon, and the cylons are too busy butchering us with their sneaky tactics to nuke her yet. We will defend her. All ships, open fire!"

The colonial fleet exploded like a star, thousands of railgun slugs hurtling towards the cylon fleet, a scant thirty miles away. From the side, the battle looked like two huge masses of ships, separated only by a small area of the void. The massive and sudden counter attack caught the cylons by surprise, and the slugs tore into their ships. Basestars and cruiser analogues were gutted, and exploded, sending debris in all directions. The occassional volley of StarFire missiles flew from colonial ships, crimson explosions decimating the cylons unlucky enough to be caught in their path.

The M101 StarFire was a unique missile using a warhead filled with a small amount of a rare element, Novalisium, that was only found on three colonies. The element was incredibly high-yield, with the small amounts in the warheads capable of fifty kilotons worth of damage. It was also able to fire StarFury submuntions, and was notable for it's bright crimson explosions.

The _Atlantia_ fired her huge bow guns, the largest in existence, the titanic slugs simply decimating a basestar and two cruisers.

The response was no lesser in scale, as the cylons retaliated with a huge swarm of missiles. The colonials threw up unholy amounts of flak, as they launched thousands of vipers at the cylons.

Another gigantic volley of railgun fire passed the missiles mid flight, and both fleets reeled, ships on both sides exploding. The colonials flak systems were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of missiles headed their way, and almost twenty ships broke apart under the maelstrom of ordnance. The _Atlantia_ took a few hits but her absurdly thick bow armour shrugged off the missiles as if they were flies.

"Radiological alarm!" Nagala heard an ensign cry out, and the DRADIS showed the zone of the detonation.

The Valkyrie battlestar _Rhea_, which was one of the _Atlantia'_s escorts, was sent spiralling as the fifty megaton weapon exploded on her starboard bow, gutting the forward area of the ship including the CIC. The uncontrolled ship spiralled into the densely packed colonial fleet, the hulk of the ship smashing apart two _Bezerker_ cruisers, which exploded in a hellish display. The blast of the nuke rocked the _Atlantia_, and she fired her bow guns in defiance, devastating a cylon basestar.

The two fleets continued to pound eachother, although it was clear that the cylons had the upper hand. They had destroyed a quarter of the colonial ships before they had regained power, and their missile systems were swamping the colonial flak guns. Dying ships on both sides went up in flashes of light, the debris crashing into other ships in the tightly packed formations. In the 'no-mans land' between the two fleets, which was a whirling hellstorm of flak, and where missiles crossed alongside slugs, thousands of vipers duelled with hundreds of thousands of raiders.

"Sir, our fighters cannot break through the cylon fighter screen, and they will intercept any nukes we send at them," the XO reported. Nagala nodded.

"Arm the nukes anyway," he ordered coldly. "But sir…"

"Objection noted!" the admiral shouted back, as three more ships winked off the DRADIS screen. It was apparent even to the untrained eye that the colonials would not win, but they would die trying. The cylons dense formations and the close range fighting meant that the cylons could not dodge their railgun slugs, but the sheer volume of enemy missiles and the colonials own dense formations meant that they also could not avoid enemy fire.

A huge explosion rocked the colonial formation as the warstar _Helios_ tore apart, the explosion of the huge ship destroying two cruisers and a Valkyrie class battlestar. The _Helios _was a two and a half kilometre long _Leviathan_ battlestar, and it was keeping the left flank of the cylons suppressed. Without it the cylons fired missiles that had previously been destroyed by the _Helios_' extensive flak systems. The missiles continued relatively unopposed, and tore into the warstars escorts, shattering several _Bezerker _cruisers, a _Brimir_ carrier and a _Mercury_ class battlestar.

"Sir we lost the _Helios_!" the DRADIS officer cried out. Nagala was about to respond when the whole ship shook, and he staggered. The shaking had been caused by the proximity of the _Atlantia_ to an exploding _Mercury _battlestar.

"Damage report!"

"Sir, we have minor hull breaches in the bow armour, railgun turrets twelve and thirteen are out of action, flak mounts ten through twenty-five have been destroyed, and starboard manoeuvring thuster is malfunctioning." The _Atlantia _was certainly holding her own, but it wouldn't last.

Nagala grimaced.

"Fire all nuclear ordnance on my mark!"

All across the fleet, hull panels opened, and silos were armed.

"MARK!"

With that, the entire fleet launched their nuclear ordnance, hundreds of missiles with differing yields hurtled towards the cylon fleet. With the fleet so tightly packed, the missiles would do massive damage. The raiders broke off from the massive furballs, and started gunning down the missiles.

Three quarters of the missiles were destroyed, and the rest flew into the cylon fleet, so many new suns flashing into existence, and then shimmering out.

"Report!" Nagala shouted. The DRADIS officer took a reading and then ran over to him. "Sir, we destroyed seventy-six enemy vessels with that salvo, which brings the total to three hundred enemy ships destroyed."

"How many have we lost?" Nagala asked, not really wanting to hear the answer. The officer gulped. "Sir… we have lost seven-hundred and thirty ships," he said quietly. Nagala let that sink in.

**Battlestar **_Crusader_

Commander Callum Brannan looked around the small, dimly lit CIC of the _Crusader_. She was a Warrior class battlestar, which focused on a middle ground between firepower and speed. The small flight pods of the _Crusader_ could not launch many fighters, nor did the slender ship have many extensive hangars like the similarly sized Valkyrie battlestars. The Warrior class carried four-hundred and fifty flak batteries, along with seventeen dual railgun turrets. Fast and hard to hit, the ship was a prototype at this time, and thirty-seven year old Brannan was proud to be her commander.

Today was different though. Usually they would be doing shake-down runs, but since the shit had hit the proverbial fan, the ship was at full alert. Luckily for the ship, the CNP had not yet been installed.

"New DRADIS contact," the XO stated, and the red icon marker 'ENEMY BASESTAR' moved towards them.

"Range?" Callum asked.

"Four hundred miles sir. They have a CAP and they are moving to intercept us."

"Deploy our fighters. Our armour's too light to take that ship head on, and they have far more fighters than us. We'll need to be smart," Callum said. The flight control officer nodded.

"Gun captains report main batteries are loaded and armed, and the missile launchers are primed," the XO informed Callum, who nodded.

"Send the fighters to lure away the raiders. Spin up the FTLs. I have a cunning plan," the commander said.

"Fighters are closing on the raiders. Looks like they're taking the bait. Do have a location for our hyperlight jump?" the XO said as he watched the DRADIS screen, the green icons making their way towards the cluster of icons marked 'ENEMY FIGHTER'.

"Get us behind the basestar, we need to surprise the metal bastards and then ram a couple of slugs up their asses. About seven miles behind will do," the commander order nonchalantly. Normally such a precise jump could be made, with a small margin of error. But _Crusader's_ prototype FTL was more precise than any other model, allowing for more accurate jumps.

"Our fighters have engaged the raider squadron sir!" the DRADIS officer called out. Callum nodded.

"Jump… Now!" The CIC seemed to crush, and then snap back. _Crusader_ vanished in a flash of light, and then appeared behind the cylon basestar. Before the cylon sensors could register the ship's new position, the _Crusader's_ three heavy dual railguns fired, sending six slugs at point-blank range at the basestar, with devastating results. Huge explosions destroyed unlaunched raiders and ordnance, further blanketing the ship with explosions. However the basestar was not done yet.

Its two-hundred and twenty missile launchers were arranged evenly, so the ship had equal firepower at the stern as it had at its bow. These launchers could pivot, allowing the ship to fire in any direction. Missiles flew into the _Crusader_ before the flak crews had time to react.

"Damage report!" Callum shouted, as he regained his footing. The DC officer looked at her readouts. She grimaced.

"Fire on decks three and four, buckling on frame thirty-two, and hull breach on deck seven," she reported.

"We don't have the armour to fight at this range!" the XO shouted. Callum nodded. He could hear the low drone of the flak cannons, and the ship shook again as another missile exploded against the bow.

The bow cannons fired again, along with the dorsal batteries, the slugs peppering the basestar and riddling it with hull breaches.

"Cylon ship is showing heavy damage sir!" the gun captain reported over the wireless. Callum smiled.

"Finish her off."

One last volley from the _Crusader_ ripped apart the cylon ship, decompressions and ruptured fuel lines not doing anything to help. The ship did not go up in an explosion, it was simply a wreck.

"Recall the Vipers, and plot a jump for the Scorpia fleet ship yards. We can see if there is anymore ships there," Callum ordered.

"Yes sir, FTLs will be cooled by the time the birds are recalled, we lost three vipers," the flight control officer said.

A few minutes later, the ship again jumped away. She reappeared next to the burning wreckage that was the shipyard.

"DRADIS shows huge amounts of debris. The shipyard is just… it's been wiped out. Optics are reporting that they can pick out destroyed ships amongst the rubble… including, my gods… a warstar sir," the DRADIS officer called out. Callum was angry. He had grown up on Scorpia. Damn cylons had gone and nuked the planet by the looks of the optical telescopes.

"We'll make them pay for this."

"Three basestars approaching sir. Their DRADIS is most likely scrambled by all the debris. They seem to have picked up our FTL wake and are now searching for us," the DRADIS officer said.

"Take us into the wreckage, we can hide in there until they're gone," Callum ordered. The crew solemnly nodded, understanding why they couldn't get revenge yet, not when they were outnumbered and outgunned.

"Helm, get us in there. Carefully," Callum said, before heading down to the bow observation deck.

**Virgon, Colonial Counteroffensive, Warstar **_Atlantia_

Amongst the debris of the Colonial fleet, fifty ships struggled on, the debris of their fallen comrades providing them with cover. These ships were the last surviving ships out of the twelve-hundred that had taken part in the counter-offensive. A mixture of cruisers, battlestars and the _Atlantia_ herself. Opposite, eighteen miles away, the wreckage of eight-hundred cylon ships served as a reminder of how much Virgon cost the cylon fleet. However the Cylons still had three hundred ships, six times what the colonials had. And the two fleets were still remorselessly pounding away at one-another.

As Nagala watched the DRADIS screen, another _Bezerker_ cruiser went up in a ball of flames. The _Atlantia_ herself was nearly disabled, the handiwork of ten nuclear missiles. Most of her weapons had become a happy memory, the engines were destroyed, and the majority of the crew were dead.

_Atlantia_ would not survive the next cylon volley. Nagala looked around the CIC. Most of the crew were slumped over their consoles, still. The XO was face down on the tactical table, blood pouring from the side of his head from where an exploding console hit him with shrapnel. Nagala himself had a broken leg, and the sixty-five year old Admiral was acceptant of his imminent demise.

" At least we tried," he whispered. He had already told Admiral Winston to command the remnants of the fleet when the Atlantia was destroyed. He glanced up at the DRADIS screen again. Fifteen ships remained, including the new flagship, Admiral Winston's Mercury class _Firebolt_, and they were all damaged in some form or another.

A single tear ran down Nagala's cheek. His race was no more. They had given it their all, and it wasn't enough. The few surviving crewmen, mostly young ensigns, looked at him, and he looked back over their fear filled faces.

He picked up the wireless.

"All ships, maximum firepower, one last salvo!" he shouted.

The fifteen remaining ships gave one last gigantic volley of railgun fire, the weapons firing as fast as their superconductive rails would allow. The rounds sailed through the abyss and tore into the cylon armada, destroying three cruisers and two basestars. Even _Atlantia_ fired, he remaining bow cannons shattering a basestar.

"This is it," Nagala whispered, as the cylons fired three dozen missiles at the _Atlantia_. It was more than she could take. A huge explosion tore out from her belly, and the engine block burst into flames. Already burning hull plates blew off, sucking crewmen into the void. One of the ship's huge double flight pods exploded outwards. Finally the ship simply was consumed in a massive explosion. The ship survived largely intact, but completely devastated. The blackened and burnt wreck was dark, and silent. The five kilometre long ship, the pride of the fleet was no more.

**Battlestar **_Universia_

_Three hours later_

"That was a good nap," Eoin muttered to himself as he got out of his rack. He looked around his messy quarters. _I should really clean up this pigsty_. Not now anyway. Yawning he sat down at his desk and turned the coffee machine on. The smell of the heavenly drink entered his nostrils as the phone rang.

_Ughhh. What?_ He thought to himself.

"Lundy," he said picking up the phone.

"Sir, we just got a priority one message," Lauren said, a slight tremble in her voice.

"Shipping accident?"

"No."

"Well, can you read it please?" Eoin asked.

"O-okay. Message reads, 'Attention all Colonial Units, Cylon attack underway. All surviving units join the Battlestar _Atlantia_ over Virgon for counter-attack'. What are you or- I'm sorry," Lauren said, sounding like she was crying. Eoin couldn't blame her.

"I'll be right there," he said, leaving his coffee where it was.

_CIC_ (**C**ombat **I**nformation **C**enter)

"Status on the battlegroup?" Eoin said running into CIC. As he ran in he saw several scared looking crewmembers.

"All ships are ready," Lauren said. BSG 40 consisted of three _Valkyries_ (_Universia, Oceania and Sola_), five _Bezerker _(_Ionia, Nuclear Winter, Hades, Calypso and Dark Sword_) class heavy escorts, four _Scythe_ (_Isis, Corona Flare, Neptune and Hera)_ and three _Gungnir_ (_Deep Impact, Hestia and Kobol)_ class heavy escorts. They had over 150 Viper mk VIIs and thirty_Raptors_.

"Sir, receiving a report," a crewmember said handing a piece of paper to Eoin.

ATTENTION COLONIAL UNITS

BATTLESTAR ATLANTIA DESTROYED OVER VIRGON

PICON STATION HAS BEEN DESTROYED

NUCLEAR DETONATIONS REPORTED ON CAPRICA, GEMENON, SCORPIA, PICON, SAGGITARON AND LEONIS

CNP PROGRAM IS INFECTED. DELETE FROM SYSTEMS AND DISCONNECT ALL NETWORKS. CYLONS USING CNP TO SHUT DOWN WARSHIPS.

97 BATTLESTARS DESTROYED. CYLON CAUSALTIES MINIMAL

ASSIST CIVILLAIN SHIPS IN EVACUTION OF ALL COLONIES

REAR ADMIRAL WINSTON, BATTLESTAR FIREBOLT

"Well, we're frakked," Eoin said.

"What are our losses?" Lauren asked.

"97 Battlestars," Eoin almost whispered, fearful of his family on Libran.

"My gods."

"Patch me through to all ships!" Eoin ordered. The comms officer handed him a wireless headset.

"Attention BSG 40, this is the Admiral. We have just received word that a Cylon attack against our homeworlds is underway. We are being defeated. 97 Battlestars are gone. I want all computer networks shut down. No networked computers are to be on any ship, since the Cylons are using the CNP against us. Further updates as we get them," he said. CIC had gone very quiet.

"Get every civilian ship over here now. The Cylons'll wipe them out. Launch a CAP."

"Yes sir."

_30 minutes later_

"All computers have been unnetworked, and we are ready for combat. Several more civilian ships are requesting permission to join the fleet," Lauren said.

"Give them permission. How many civvies do we have now?" Eoin said.

"Four Gemenon Liners, two luxury liners, two Colonial Movers vessels, three mining ships, two tyllium ships and six more passenger vessels," Lauren replied.

"How many people?"

"11576."

"Do all those ships have FTL?"

"Yes, but there is another eleven ships that lack FTL. What are we going to do?"

"We'll have to get them off those ships. They'll die without FTL," Eoin said.

"Where are we going?"

"To join the fight," Eoin replied bluntly.

"Are you joking? We'll be slaughtered! Don't you see? Ninety-seven Battlestars lost, Eoin. Ninety-seven? If they didn't have a chance then we'll hardly have one!"

"They had networked sys-!"

"No!," Lauren cut him off, "No. Even without networks we'll still be destroyed. How many Cylons do you think there are out there?"

Silence, and Eoin became aware that most of the CIC staff were looking at him.

"Fine, you're right. FTL control, plot us a hyperlight jump to Scorpion fleet shipyards. But first we need to get the civilians off the ships that lack FTL, " Eoin said.

"There's over five thousand people on those ships," Lauren said.

"And how many on the FTL capable ships?"

"I told you, 11576," Lauren said.

"Sorry, I forgot. I want every Raptor to take part in evacuating those ships," Eoin ordered.

"Distribute jump coordinates to all civilian vessels," Lauren ordered.

"DRADIS contacts! Distance 90 miles of our bow!" Simpson screamed. Eoin picked up a handset.

"Action stations! Set condition one throughout the fleet!" he yelled. Klaxons and sirens went off as crewmembers ran to their posts.

"Stand by to launch all wings," Lauren said into her handset.

Vipers were standing by to rocket out of their launch tubes and head towards the unknown contact.

"Sir, contact are sized like Basestars, and optical telescopes are confirming that they are definitely Cylon!" the Simpson said.

"How many Basestars?" Lauren asked.

"Five sir," Simpson said.

"All weapons, stand by!" Eoin shouted.

"They're launching fighters!"

"How long will it take for everyone to jump?

"Two minutes," the FTL operator said.

Unconsciously or not, Lauren grabbed Eoin's hand, putting a blush on his face, despite the situation.

The starfish shapes of the Basestars moved slowly towards the small fleet.

"Thirty miles! Weapons now in effective range!"

"Basestar launching missiles!"

"All point-defense cannons, target enemy missiles!" Eoin shouted.

Thousands of cannon rounds made a defensive flak barrier around each ship, stopping the missiles.

"Come on," Eoin muttered.

"Launch the alert vipers and have the CAP intercept the Cylon fighters! Have the _Sola_, _Corona Flare, Deep Impact_ and _Hera_ protect the civillain ships," Lauren ordered.

"We're going to have to leave the ships without FTL behind," Eoin said quietly.

"There's five thousand people on those ships!" Lauren protested.

"I don't like it any more than you but we can't hold off five basestars for long," Eoin replied.

**Raider 903844**

_Commencing I.F.F check. Processing- targets are Colonial Vipers. Attacking._

Raider 903844's animal instincts kicked in as it raised its visor to activate the CNP virus. But nothing happened.

_Error. Colonial vessels appear unaffected._

A new directive from the Basestar told it to engage the Colonials, virus or not. Right before a burst from a Viper tore 903844 apart.

**Viper 892**

John "Overlord" Whelp, CAG of_ Universia_ grinned. He had just destroyed his first enemy fighter.

"Stay with your wingmate!" he shouted to "Phaser" and "Worm", who were flying away from the squadron. The swarm of Cylon fighters flew towards them firing blue tracer rounds as they went.

"Frak!" Whelp cursed as he narrowly avoided a stream of blue gunfire.

Then everything went white.

_Universia_

"They.. They nuked our fighters!" Simpson shouted.

"Frak! How many did we lose?" Eoin asked, fearing the answer.

"Over one hundred and thirty," Simpson said grimly.

"Shit! Recall all remaining Vipers and have the _Scythes_ create a flak barrier. I want all flak batteries to full and all railcannons to target the nearest basestar," Eoin ordered.

"How many Vipers are left?" Lauren asked.

"About twenty with thirty five in reserve," Eoin replied.

"That's not enough to defend this fleet properly."

"I know. We'll pick up more Vipers at the shipyards," Eoin said.

"What about pilots?"

"There's about a hundred reserve pilots in total in the fleet."

"INCOMING! ONE HUNDRED PLUS MISSILES BEARING ON THE _ISIS!_" Simpson screamed at the top of his lungs.

The _Isis_ fired every last flak cannon she had at the missiles and managed to down about forty missiles. However the remaining sixty slammed into her, explosions hiding the _Isis_ from view. When the fire cleared the _Isis_ was floating in pieces. Her engines had been ripped off and the ventral "handle" had been smashed beyond recognition.

"_Isis_ destroyed sir," Simpson said solemnly.

"Oh, those people," Lauren said.

"Much braver than I," Eoin said quietly.

"Admiral, Commander Young wishes to speak with you!" the communications officer said.

Eoin picked up his handset. "What?" he asked as the _Universia_ shook from a missile strike.

"_We can't just leave these people here!"_

"Jake, we have to! We can't hold off these basestars!"

"_But they'll die! There's five thousand of them!"_

"But there's more on the other ships! Sorry to make it a numbers game, but they may very well be the last of our race! Our planets have been nuked, alright? Every frakking one! We don't have to delay!"

"_Can you at least tell them where we're going so they can follow at sublight?_"

"No! If they're captured the Cylons will know where the rest of us went!"

"_Fine….Oceania actual out." _Eoin put the phone down.

"May the gods protect those we leave behind," Lauren muttered to herself.

"Sir, engine three is offline and we have multiple hull breaches!" the damage control officer shouted.

"Are all Vipers recalled?" Eoin asked.

"Yes sir, all birds are aboard!"

"Radiological alarm! The Cylons are launching nukes!" Simpson shouted.

"FTL, are we ready?" Lauren asked.

"Yes sir!"

"All ships jump now!" Eoin shouted.

In a flash of light, the ships in the fleet disappeared, save for a number of civilian ships that lacked FTL systems.

**In orbit around Scorpia**

BSG 40 and it's civilian fleet snapped back into existence over the humid jungle planet of Scorpia.

"Jump complete," Lauren said.

"Anything on DRADIS Simpson?" Eoin asked.

"No sir. It seems the Cylons nuked Scorpia and then moved on… Wait! Massive amount of debris thirty miles of our bow!"

"What is it?"

"It's the shipyard sir. I'm detecting high levels of radiation," Simpson said.

"Cylons went and nuked the shipyard," Eoin said.

"How many ships were there?" Lauren asked.

"If I remember correctly, two _Valkyries_, one _Colombia_, the _Pegasus_, and half a dozen _Bezerker_ cruisers. Some other ships I can't remember as well," Eoin said grimly.

"Sir, I we're getting a hail," the comms officer said.

"Put them through, whoever it is," Eoin said, picking up his phone. Lauren put on her headset.

"_This is the Battlestar Crusader. Identify yourself,"_ said a voice.

"This is Admiral Lundy aboard the _Universia_. I have BSG 40 with me," Eoin said.

"_Admiral… It's a pleasure to hear your voice. This is Commander Callum Brannon. We've been sitting out here since the Cylons came. The nuclear detonations must have blinded their DRADIS and they jumped out. My ship is still moored. Dock 17,"_ Commander Brannon said, relief evident in his voice.

"Commander, release your moorings and join the fleet. You're in BSG 40 now. Lundy out," Eoin said, putting the phone down.

"The _Crusader_?" Lauren asked.

"She's a _Warrior_ class Battlestar. She's small, about twelve hundred meters, and only has small flight pods. I think _Warriors_ have about thirty Vipers on-board," Eoin said.

In a few minutes, the slender form of the _Crusader_ pierced the clouds of smoke cloaking the shipyard.

The _Warrior_- class was focused on having high speed and agility while still having enough batteries to fight off potential threats.

Four hundred and fifty point defense batteries lined the _Crusader's_ hull with three heavy railcannons in her bow, two on each flight pod and ten on the main body (5 dorsal, 5 ventral). There were a dozen missile tubes capable of firing nuclear ordnance and eight powerful engines to ensure a high speed. Although lacking in armour, the _Crusader's_ slender and low profile made hard to hit and very manoeuvrable.

"Sir, the _Crusader_ has moved into the fleet," Simpson said. Eoin nodded.

"We need to salvage everything we can from the shipyards," Lauren said.

"I agree. I want every Raptor down there. We don't have much time," Eoin said.

_Ten minutes later_

"There's about seventy Vipers remaining at the shipyard," Lauren said as another Raptor touched down in _Universia's_ port flight pod.

"Good. Here, take a look at this," Eoin said, beckoning his XO over to a viewscreen linked to an optical telescope.

"What is it?"

"This." Eoin directed the telescope to a clearing in the smoke, where a blocky form could been seen resting in a dock.

"What's that?"

"It's the Battlestar _Leviathan_, a _Leviathan _class Battlestar. It's about two and a half kilometres long, and if the Cylons took it out they really meant business," Eoin said grimly.

"Sir, thirty civilian ships just jumped in," Simpson said.

"Have them move into the fleet," Lauren ordered.

"How many civvies is that now?" Eoin asked.

"Forty Nine," Lauren said.

"Sir! Another contact! Three Battlestars, one mobile shipyard and six escorts!"

"We need all the ships we can get," Eoin said.

"Hail those ships," he added, picking up his phone.

"Attention Colonial vessels, this is the Battlestar _Universia_. You are to move into are fleet. Please respond," Eoin said.

"_Roger that Universia. Admiral is that you? Thank the Gods. This is the Columbia- class Battlestar Warhawk. The Mercury- class Nova is with us and the Columbia – class Demigod. We've taken heavy damage. I'm Commander Makin, by the way,"_ Makin said.

"Are your CNP systems networked?"

"_No sir, we disabled them because the Cylons were hacking our systems."_

"What kind of damage have you taken?"

"_The other two Battlestars and our escorts are fine but the Warhawk took three nukes to our port flight pod. It's practically hanging on by a thread," _Makin said.

"Alright. We're leaving soon by the way," Eoin said.

"_Sir?"_

"We're going to the Prolmar sector. The Colonies are destroyed, Commander. There's no point in fighting for them now. We have to go. We're all that's left," Eoin said.

"_Yes sir. Makin out_."

"Hang on! Can you retract your fight pods?"

"_Yes sir_."

"Retract the port pod and I'll have the mobile shipyard take a look at it," Eoin said.

"_Yes sir. Is that all?"_

"Yes. Lundy out."

"Sir! DRADIS contacts! Three Basestars!"

"Frak! All batteries, stand by!"

"Sir?" Lauren asked.

"We can take three!" Eoin shouted as the Colonial vessel moved towards the Basestars.

**Hello. Did you like it? If you did, great. If you didn't, please tell me why. Reviews mean a lot to me, so please review :D**

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**This guy, CanisD is a really good drawer. You should check out his BSG stuff. Especially his Valkyrie. Obviously remove the.**

**Have a nice day.**

**Note- Gungnirs and Scythes are from Battlestar Galactica online.**


	2. Chapter 2

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

**CHAPTER TWO**

"**SACRIFICE"**

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong"- Mohandas Ghandi

_Previously…_

"_Attention BSG 40, this is the Admiral. We have just received word that a Cylon attack against our homeworlds is underway. We are being defeated. 97 Battlestars are gone. I want all computer networks shut down. No networked computers are to be on any ship, since the Cylons are using the CNP against us. Further updates as we get them."_

_Xxx_

"_Sir! DRADIS contacts! Three Basestars!"_

"_Frak! All batteries, stand by!"_

"_Sir?" Lauren asked._

"_We can take three!" Eoin shouted as the Colonial vessel moved towards the Basestars._

**Virgon**

General Fackrell slowly got to his feet. He saw Admiral Nadeau slumped against the wall of the command bunker. She held one hand against her stomach, blood gushing from the wound. As Fackrell looked around, he saw two marines trying to pull one of their comrades out from a pile of rubble.

This was the scene inside the Virgon command centre, now the command center for the entire colonial fleet, or whatever was left of it. Fackrell was in command of whatever was left of the Colonial army.

"Nadeau!" Fackrell shouted, running over and then crouching down beside her. The young Admiral, thirty-six in age, was in a bad way. Fackrell tore his sleeve, and then pressed the fabric against her stomach.

"I'm still here," the Admiral said, her voice just above a whisper. The bunker shook again as cylon shells pummelled the marine and army defenders topside.

The colonial forces were attempting to hold a highway bridge that led to the bunker until evac ships could get through. The cylon forces had taken a lot of ground, and the colonials were attempting to destroy the bridge. The bridge was the only way through the mountains and it bridged the Hades gorge, a valley hundreds of meters deep.

At about fifteen miles from the capital Boskirk, the bunker staff had seen the nuclear explosion that had decimated the city and its six million inhabitants. The cylons would've dropped a nuke on the bunker, known as Boskirk-1, if it weren't for the fact that the bunker was defended by multiple CIWS batteries and advanced jamming systems, which prevented the cylons from getting a lock on the bunker.

Outside the bunker, the battle raged. The bunker entrance was dug into the side of one of the mountains, with the highway leading to it. A pair of railgun turrets defended the bunker, with a trio of CIWS batteries bolstering the defense.

Private Lucas Taylor ducked behind one of the barricades in front of the bunker, as cylon bullets hit the space he had been in just a second before. He peeked over the barricade, and did not like what he was seeing.

More than a hundred centurions were marching across the bridge relentlessly. Dozens of cylon tanks were burning, destroyed by the railgun batteries, but the centurions simply climbed over them, and were met with fifty-calibre machine gun fire. The heavy rounds tore into their flanks, scrapping several of the machines before they returned fire. Taylor stood up, and aimed his TAC-17 assault rifle. Flicking the fire select to burst, he squeezed the trigger, and three 5.56 millimetre bullets flew from the gun, impacting one of the centurions who simply shrugged off the attack. The centurion returned fire, and Taylor ducked, but the marine beside him was killed instantly.

An army corporal, armed with a TAC-19 battle rifle, fired four 7.62 millimetre round which struck the centurion's cranium, and the heavier rounds destroyed the construct. Taylor fired a few more bursts, with his rounds still having no effect.

"Frak," he whispered as he changed the thirty-five round magazine for a fresh one. One of the railgun batteries fired, the round flying into the group of centurions, destroying them all and a part of the bridge in the process.

"Damnit! The jammers have taken too much damage!" he heard the Colonel shout, panic evident in his voice. Now that the jammers were destroyed, cylons could bombard the bunker from orbit. A trio of anti-ship missiles flew down, with one being shot down by the CIWS batteries. The two missiles struck the railgun batteries, taking both of them out.

"We lost the main guns!" someone cried out, as more missiles rained down on the colonial postions. One struck a Predator main battle tank, and the vehicle was flipped fifty feet into the air and then landed upside down. The colonials fought on nevertheless.

A cylon heavy raider flew over the bridge and strafed the colonials with fire from its pair of triple-barrelled rotary cannons. One of the CIWS batteries fired a stream of cannon fire, and the heavy raider exploded in a fireball which rained debris down onto the cylon forces. Then a missile landed on the CIWS batteries, destroying them all.

What happened next shook the colonials to the core. Taylor heard and felt a rumbling, and the colonial forces looked up. A _Valkyrie_ battlestar trailed flames from her engines and flight pods, as she rolled. The battlestar flew over the colonials and then crashed in the direction of Boskirk, the huge explosion being seen by the colonials from Boskirk-1. Taylor looked up, and a missile exploded five meters from him. The young private was thrown fifteen meters, and the life left him.

Fackrell, with Nadeau over his shoulder, sprinted through the corridors of the base. He had just been up at the landing pad, and the evac shuttle had been destroyed. Now, they had to get to the deep storage facility, ten miles below the surface. It was a large shelter and would be safe, with enough supplies for years. The marines and army were holding the cylons off, and Fackrell knew many of them would not make it. He swung around a corner into two marines carrying an army private on a stretcher, also making their way down. Fackrell followed them, and they came across a large door three metres thick. Fackrell put in his ID code, and the huge door began to open slowly, and the marines ran inside first. Fackrell and by extent Nadeau followed, the door sealing itself behind them.

The shelter included a command facility, and Fackrell went there after leaving Nadeau in the med-bay. He came across Admiral Ragan, a grizzled seventy year old man who had fought in the first war, and General Tallant, a forty year old Caprican with a long brown beard and gold rimmed glasses.

"What's the situation?" Fackrell asked, and Ragan sighed.

"Nagala's dead and the _Atlantia_'s been destroyed, as has the rest of the fleet. We have uncomfirmed reports of several ships surviving, but escaping colonial space," he said with a grimace.

"They're deserting!" Tallant snarled, earning a contemptuous look from Ragan. "They're smart, they know we can't win," the Admiral snapped, and Tallant gave him a hateful look in return.

"What ships?" Fackrell asked. Ragan looked at a report.

"The Ragnar station is reporting that the _Galactica_ has docked with a group of sixty civilian ships, and has rearmed. It is suggested that they are heading out into the Prolmar sector. There is also reports that the _Universia_ and her battlegroup has survived, and probes are reporting that the _Pegasus_ is missing from her berth at Scorpia," he said.

"At least some ships survived," Fackrell said, just as a marine ran up to the officers.

"Sir, all topside forces have been killed, it's just us now," he said. The officers simply nodded.

"Collapse all the tunnels leading to us, we can't have the cylons coming for a visit can we?" Ragan ordered.

"Better get comfortable. We're gonna be here a _long_ time," Fackrell said sadly.

**CIC, Battlestar **_Universia_

The klaxons shrilled as _Universia_ charged towards the Basestars with the rest of her group just behind her.

"Weapons have entered optimal range," the WEAPCON officer, Raymond Hughes, called out.

"Fire," Eoin said.

The _Universia's_ bow cannons flashed sending four slugs into the nearest basestar, tearing one of the "arms" off.

"Confirmed damage!" Hughes yelled.

"Sir, the Cylons are launching Raiders," Simpson said.

"Launch the alert Vipers," Lauren ordered.

The basestar took more four more hits from the _Universia_ and three from the _Sola_, opening up huge rents in the ship's hull.

"Incoming missiles, _Scythes_ creating a flak barrier," Simpson called out.

"Distribute these jump coordinates," Eoin said handing the comms officer a piece of paper.

"Yes sir."

"Sir the first basestar is breaking up," Hughes said.

"Good, that just leaves two," Lauren muttered. The ship shook as a missile penetrated the flak barrier and impacted on the port flight pod.

"Damage report!" Eoin shouted.

"Minor damage sir but port railcannons three and four are out of action," Hughes said. They were holding their ground

"Helm, roll us on to our starboard side," Eoin ordered as the ship rolled.

"Starboard batteries have a firing solution sir," Hughes called out.

"Target the basestar centres. That seems to be a weak spot," Lauren said.

"How long until everyone can jump?" Eoin asked.

"Three minutes," the FTL operator called out.

"Sir! Thirteen more basestars have just jumped in and they are launching Raiders!" Simpson screamed.

"Fifteen ships… we can't hold off that many!" Lauren said. Eoin was thinking to himself quietly as the ship was hit by another missile.

"Sir! What are your orders?" Lauren asked. Eoin was still thinking, and a determined look came over his features.

"Sir!"

"Lauren, take all non-essential personnel and get on one of the atmospheric shuttles. Get to the _Sola_," Eoin suddenly said.

"What? Why?"

"Because we're gonna draw the Cylon fire so that the rest of you can get away."

"That's tantamount to suicide!"

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few," Eoin said.

"No! I'm not leaving you!"

"Colonel Patience! I am ordering you to get on that shuttle!" Lauren looked like she was going to protest again but thought better of it.

Then she leaned forward and kissed him. Eoin was stunned. For a few seconds they held the kiss, until Lauren broke away.

"Just come back," she said quietly before heading to the hanger bay.

"Eh… All ahead flank speed, take us into the basestar group!" Eoin shouted.

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

"What is Eoin doing?" Aidan asked as the _Universia_ rocketed towards the basestars while firing every battery she had, taking out a basestar as she accelerated.

"Sir, one of _Universia's_ shuttles is requesting permission to dock," the communications officer said.

"Hail that shuttle," Aidan said, picking up his handset.

"_Commander, we need to dock,"_ came a voice that he recognised as Lauren's.

"What's Eoin doing?"

"_He's going to draw their fire while we get away."_

"That's insane!"

"_He knows."_

"Port landing bay," Aidan said, putting the phone down.

"Well?" Sam asked.

"Order all _Universia_ Vipers to make combat landings on our landing bays," Aidan said.

"And get the fleet ready to jump."

**CIC, Battlestar **_Universia_

_Universia_ shook as she was pummelled by missile after missile. She had left the flak barrier and was also being harassed by Raiders strafing her hull.

"Multiple hull breaches!" the DC officer called out.

"Primary weapons are offline!" Hughes shouted.

"Jump drives?" Eoin asked.

The FTL operator shook his head.

"Sir, the fleet are beginning to jump away," Simpson yelled.

"It's been an honour to serve with you," Eoin said to his CIC crew.

Suddenly one of the Basestars blew apart in a massive explosion.

**CIC**, **Battlestar** _Warhawk_

The damaged _Warhawk_ accelerated towards the Cylons while firing her heavy Railcannons and flak batteries.

"_Universia, Warhawk_. We'll take the heat, concentrate on getting out of there," Commander David Mackin said. He put down the phone and turned to his XO, Melissa Dawson.

"It was an honour," he said, saluting her.

"Yes sir," Melissa replied, returning the salute.

"All batteries, salvo fire, target Cylon baseships bearing eight three seven carem two two nine," Ethan ordered.

As the damaged _Universia_ slowly slipped out of the basestar group, _Warhawk_ went in. Missiles pounded her hull and gutted her starboard flight pod but she still went in. As her heavy cannons were destroyed one by one she fired a spread of nukes into the tightly packed basestars, destroying two in fantastic explosions and damaging another three beyond repair.

Finally, the gravely wounded ship rammed a basestar, destroying them both in a dazzling explosion, as her engine block flew into another basestar, instantly destroying it before the Cylon ship had a chance to evade.

_Warhawk_ and five basestars were no more.

**CIC, Battlestar**_Universia_

"Bless you David," Eoin said to himself as the _Wahawk_ disappeared off the DRADIS screen.

"Sir, FTLs are back online," the FTL operator called out.

"Jump."

_Prolmar sector, Colonial remnant fleet_

As the _Universia_ snapped back into existence, the entire ship contorted and writhed. Explosions and decompressions covered the cratered hull as the ship groaned like a dying animal. Finally the ship stopped shaking, though the hull still groaned.

Eoin looked around the CIC which was filled with smoke.

"Status report Simpson," Eoin said.

"Sir, we have no weapons, no DRADIS and no sublight engines. There's hull integrity warnings everywhere and a lot of decompressions. _Universia's_ last jump put too much strain on the damaged hull, sir," Simpson said.

"Did we make it back to the fleet?"

"We can't tell without DRADIS sir."

"Thank you Simpson," Eoin said.

"Gladstone, get me a Raptor," he said to the flight control officer.

"Yes sir," Gladstone replied.

"Alright, let's get sublight back online," Eoin called out.

"Sir, tyllium lines three and four have ruptured," the DC officer said.

"I want them repaired. Do we have any hope on the other engines?"

"We can get engines one and four back online sir but we have no manoeuvring thrusters."

"Do it. Status on the Raptor?" Eoin asked.

"Raptor is leaving the port flight pod now sir," Gladstone called out.

"We're damn lucky to have that mobile shipyard," Eoin mumbled to himself.

"Sir, DRADIS has been restored, and we're back at the fleet!" Simpson shouted. The CIC burst in happy cheering.

"Comms, I want Lauren back here ASAP," Eoin said.

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

"_Aidan, we made it," _came Eoin's voice as it came through the CIC speakers. The entire control centre let out a cheer.

"You bastard. I knew you would. Where's the _Warhawk_?" Aidan said with a smile on his face.

"_I'm afraid she's in a million little pieces. They sacrificed themselves so that we could get away."_

"A brave crew," Aidan stated solemnly.

"_Indeed. Univerisa's a wreck. It's going to take that shipyard at least two months to repair her."_

"I'll see what I can do. _Sola_ out." Aidan put the phone down.

"Are we going over there now?" Lauren asked.

"I'll get us a shuttle."

-oo0oo-

Barely under her own power _Universia_ limped towards the safety of the _Sanctuary _- class mobile shipyard _Cradle. _At over three and half kilometres long and two kilometres wide, the skeletal _Cradle_ was one of the largest military ships ever built.

Armed with six heavy railguns, twelve medium railguns and seven hundred point defense guns, _Cradle_ was more than capable of defending herself.

As docking clamps grasped _Universia_, something went unnoticed in the starboard flight pod. Something that could even threaten _Cradle_…

Two craft lay in the pod. Ships not built by human hands.

The ramps on the back of the ships hissed open.

-oo0oo-

**Atmospheric Shuttle BSG40BSU-289**

"I'm glad he made it," Lauren said. Aidan gave her a crafty look.

"Maybe more than glad?" he replied slyly. Lauren felt her face heat up just a bit.

"No, just glad."

"Alright. I want you to go the CIC and go back to work. I'm going to find a DC officer," Aidan said as the shuttle docked with the side of the starboard flight pod.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?"

"I could have sworn I saw something in the flight pod," Lauren said.

"Probably debris, nothing to worry about," Aidan stated dismissively. There was a clunk as a hard seal was achieved with _Universia._ The airlock opened.

"Alright, I'm off to CIC," Lauren said, saluting Aidan before walking off.

Aidan walked out into the corridor. Spotting a crewmember, he called the man to come over.

"Sir?"

"Take me to the DC officer," Aidan ordered.

"Yes sir."

The two walked off, just as the lights flickered out.

"Sir, we've been having sporadic power outages. A lot of power lines have been heavily damaged," the crewmember said.

"I'll keep that in mind," Aidan replied as they kept on walking. He stopped, when he saw something about five metres ahead. It was hard to pick out in the darkness, but seemed to be a large metal shape. Aidan squinted and saw that the thing was humanoid in shape.

Then it turned around.

"Frak me," Aidan whispered.

The machine had a strobing red eye that lit up the rest of its body. Sharp fingers adjourned the ends of its arms and the entire thing looked like it was covered in armour.

And then, it moved.

A more accurate term would be 'lunged'. With inhuman speed the machine leaped at Aidan and slashed.

The razor sharp claws on the machine's hands left three claw marks on Aidan's stomach. The force of the blow sent Aidan flying back into a pile of cardboard boxes.

"Ugh…" he groaned. Although his vision was blurry he saw what happened next.

The crewmember accompanying him drew his handgun and fired the entire clip into the machine. Twelve bullets impacted off the machine's armour, doing no damage.

The crewman dropped his gun in fear and tried to run. The machine had other ideas.

Its hands 'morphed' into guns, and fired at the crewman. His head was left a bloody stump as his body hit the deck.

The machine turned towards Aidan to finish him off, when suddenly it's head exploded, raining metal fragments onto the deck. The machine fell to the ground with a clunk.

"Sir! Are you alright?" A marine said, lowering his assault rifle.

"What the frak was that?" asked Aidan.

"Cylons sir. We've only seen two of them but explosive tipped rounds are the only thing that hurts 'em."

"How did they get aboard?" Aidan asked as the marine helped him up.

"They must have got aboard during the battles sir."

"Typical. Send a runner to CIC.."

-oo0oo-

"Lauren!" Eoin called out with a smile on his face as Lauren entered the room.

"Reporting for duty sir," Lauren said, saluting him.

"Alright, you should some rest," Eoin replied.

"No, I'm fine. I just got here."

"Comms are down and there's no power. Not gonna be much to do."

"I'll survive."

A harsh metal on metal sound stopped their conversation. The sound seemed to be coming from the dark corridor that led to the dimly lit CIC.

"What was that?" Lauren asked.

"I'm not sure," Eoin replied, a hint of curiosity in his voice. The sound was heard again, only this time in a rhythm. Marching.

"Everybody draw your weapons. I fear we may have been boarded," Eoin ordered. The crewmembers drew their pistols though they were not good shots for the most part. It was never expected that the CIC on the Battlestar would ever be reached by boarders.

Gunshots and a muffled cry rang out with the noise of bodies hitting the deck. Most likely the CIC marine guards.

Eoin reached for the TAC-17 rifle kept under the tactical table and steadied it, aiming at the open door.

That was when they came in. Hulking metal robots. Finally, they were seeing the Cylons.

The Cylons immediately opened fire, killing some of the more unprepared crewmembers as the CIC staff returned fire, with their bullets have little effect on the metal behemoths.

Gladstone's cheek was nicked by a bullet and Simpson was hit in the right shoulder, the two men falling with wounded cries.

The smell of cordite started to taint the air as the CIC fought valiantly against the invaders. Bullets ricocheted off the cylons as spent shell casings began to litter the ground. Simpson managed to throw his handgun to Lauren who now dual wielded the weapons.

Finally one of the Cylons fell, leaving three more.

Eoin watched with horror as a pair of high calibre bullets splayed open Lauren's stomach. Wet grunts escaped her throat as she took another bullet to the right shoulder.

"NO!" Eoin found himself yelling.

Despite her gaping stomach wound, Lauren stood up, moaning in pain. That was when a Cylon lunged at her, its arm switching into a dagger.

The dagger penetrated Lauren's stomach through the gunshot wound with sufficient force to tear out the other side. Lauren was now impaled on the cylon's arm. The machine lifted her up and threw her off, and she hit a tactical console, splattering it with blood.

"FRAK YOU!" Eoin shouted as he unloaded the TAC-17's entire magazine into the metal monstrosity, one of the bullets finding a spot of weak armour and taking the machine out.

Two left.

Putting a fresh magazine into the TAC-17, he aimed at another Cylon.

"Die."

The gun recoiled in his hands as he put a five round burst in its visor, blinding the cylon which fired wildly, and Eoin ducked to avoid a stream of bullets.

Hughes then put four more bullets in the machine, destroying it.

The last Cylon, sensing defeat, fired at Eoin, recognising him as a high-value target.

Eoin returned fire, bullets ricocheting off the heavy frontal armour of the Cylon. The machine fired back, putting two rounds into Eoin- one in the left shoulder just below his heart, and the other into his left lung.

He fell over from the force of the bullets, winded. He struggled to get up.

_Gotta.. Stay.. For.. Lauren's sake.._

His own personal world succumbed to darkness just as Aidan and a marine squad entered CIC, destroying the last Cylon.

-oo0oo-

"Get a medic up here!" Aidan yelled upon seeing dead crewmen and women lying around CIC, some slumped over their stations.

"Sir, the Admiral and his XO are still alive, though barely," the marine medic said.

"Someone get them to sickbay! What's the count?"

"Twelve command staff dead sir and another fifteen wounded!"

A runner sprinted into the CIC and up to Aidan.

"Sir, the marine fireteams report that all the Cylons have been destroyed," he said with a smile on his face that quickly faded as he saw the state of the CIC.

"Good. Get me two stretchers!" Aidan shouted. Two medics scuttled over to Lauren, and gently put her on the stretcher.

"Get Eoin out two. Brave bastard."

With that, Aidan left the CIC, confusion dulling his mind, just as the power came back on.

**Sickbay, Battlestar **_Universia_

"What's their condition doc?" Aidan asked Jeremy Barnes, _Universia's_ CMO.

"Well, the XO was multiple lacerations and an exposed stomach. She's also got five broken ribs and a collapsed lung with multiple areas of trauma. The Admiral has two bullets in him. The one near his heart thankfully missed anything important but the other one has punctured his lung," Barnes said.

"Will they recover?"

"The Admiral will certainly recover first, he has less serious injuries than the XO. Colonel Patience in the other hand has a sixty percent chance of survival from a wound of that size."

They were interrupted by sickbay's phone ringing. Aidan picked it up.

"Commander Devlin here."

" _This is Ethan. Word has gotten out to the civillians and they offer condolences to the XO and Admiral. Also sir, me and the other captains have discussed it and you are now acting commander of the fleet until the Admiral is well again."_

"Oh gods, I don't want that much command," Aidan replied dejectedly.

"_You're the best choice sir."_

"Very well. Devlin out," he said, putting the phone down.

"Don't you dare die on me Eoin. Don't you dare…."

He left sickbay when seven marines with two civilian prisoners stopped him.

"Why are these people prisoners?" he asked with disdain in his voice.

"They're Cylons sir."

"What? They're not toasters. Where's the big frakking red eye?" Aidan said, his voice saturated with disbelief.

"They admitted it sir. They say they've evolved 'to take human form' or some rubbish like that. They came aboard with the Cylon soldiers," the marine said.

Aidan looked the two 'Cylons' over. One was a dark skinned man in a purple shirt and white trousers and the other was a blonde woman in a slinky black dress.

"Whatever they frakkin' are, throw 'em in the brig."

With that, he walked off, mumbling 'Don't want no command'.

**Enjoy it? Thank you if you did. I really need to write longer chapters.**

**CanisD has been kind enough to draw the **_Universia!_ **Link is below.**

albums/f252/CanisD/Shipyard/Drawings/BSG/Commissions/BS_

**Obviously remove replace with .**

**Here's a list of ships in the fleet:**

**Battlestars**

_Universia_

_Sola_

_Oceania_

_Crusader_

_Nova (Mercury)_

_Demigod (Colombia)_

**Gunstars**

_Kobol_

_Deep Impact_

_Hestia_

**Bezerker cruisers**

_Ionia_

_Nuclear Winter_

_Hades_

_Dark Sword_

_Calypso_

_Steel Talon_

_Aegis Star_

_Aegis Fate_

_Lucid Dream_

**Scythes**

_Corona Flare_

_Neptune_

_Guardian_

_Hera_

_Vulcan_

**Passenger liners- Olympic Carrier class ships**

_Gemenon Liners 1414_

_Gemenon Liners 1602_

_Gemenon Liners 1995_

_Gemenon Liners 1452_

_Gemenon Liners 1984_

_Libran Starliners 1346_

_Libran Starliners 1908 - _Libran Starliners are the exact same as Gemenon Liners except with blue coloration instead of red

**Freighters**

_Colonial Movers 185_

_Colonial Movers 726_

_Flash-Bolt_

_Taurion_

_Scorpia Wish_

_Hopeful Prayer_

**Luxury Liners**

_Fantasy_

_Cryosis_

**Other**

_Tyllium ship_

_Botanical Cruiser_

_**Bye.**_


	3. Chapter 3

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

**Chapter Three : Lost ships, long shifts**

**Happy Birthday to Just a Crazy Man**

"Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it"—Ella Wilcox

_Previously-_

_As the Universia snapped back into existence, the entire ship contorted and writhed. Explosions and decompressions covered the cratered hull as the ship groaned like a dying animal. Finally the ship stopped shaking, though the hull still groaned._

_XXX_

_That was when they came in. Hulking metal robots. Finally, they were seeing the Cylons._

_The Cylons immediately opened fire, killing some of the more unprepared crewmembers as the CIC staff returned fire, with their bullets having little effect on the metal behemoths._

_XXX_

"_What's their condition doc?" Aidan asked Jeremy Barnes, Universia's CMO._

"_Well, the XO has multiple lacerations and an exposed stomach. She's also got five broken ribs and a collapsed lung with multiple areas of trauma. The Admiral has two bullets in him. The one near his heart thankfully missed anything important but the other one has punctured his lung," Barnes said._

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

It had been two days since _Universia_ had been boarded. The Admiral and his XO were still in bad condition and hadn't even woken up yet.

This left Aidan in command.

"Anything on DRADIS?" he asked Ensign Fiona Jackson.

"No sir. We are ready to jump to the next system," she replied.

"Good. Commence jump prep."

The lights of the CIC dimmed slightly as power was transferred to _Sola's_ two FTL drives.

"Jump in five…four…three…two…one jump," Jackson called out. The room seemed to stretch into the distance and then snap back suddenly.

In a flash of light the fleet snapped back into existence in the next star system.

"Jump complete sir, all ships present and accounted for," Jackson said.

"What's this system like?"

"Well sir, there is three planetary bodies and half a dozen moons. Mostly a barren system sir."

"I want Raptors to sweep those bodies for anything usable," Aidan ordered.

**Raptor 8963S**

"_Raptor 8963S, _Sola_, you are clear for intersystem hyperlight jump. Good hunting."_

"Roger that," Lieutenant Henry "Night-Rider" Stuart said. The Raptor left _Sola's_ port flight pod.

"Ready to spin up?" he asked his ECO, Lieutenant (jg) Marie "Frogfoot" Fisher. They were tasked with jumping to the far side of the system and sweeping the system's third planet, a small rocky ball at the very edge of the system.

"Roger, jumping in five."

**Far side of system- out of comms range of fleet**

The Raptor appeared in a flash of light as it flew for the small planet.

"What? I've got sixty plus DRADIS contacts about two thousand kilometres of our starboard," Marie said with confusion in her voice.

"Asteroids?"

"No, they're moving too fast."

"We're going to investigate," Henry said, bring the Raptor about.

As the distance between the Raptor and the contacts lessened Henry was able to make out flashes in the distance.

"Entering optical range… Frak! DRADIS contacts identified as Cylon raiders and a basestar!" Marie shouted.

"Spin up the FTL, we've got to warn the fleet!"

The ship shook as a Raider noticed the Raptor and opened fire, scoring a glancing hit.

"FTL is offline!" Marie shouted with panic in her voice.

"Frak!" Henry shouted as he rolled the ship to avoid a burst of tracer fire. Suddenly what appeared to be a viper swooped above the Raptor and flew behind the Raider, spraying it with cannon fire. The Raider was blown apart and the Viper flew off.

"What?" Henry asked.

"Some of the DRADIS contacts identified as Colonial vipers and six other vessels!" Marie shouted.

"The fleet hasn't sent anyone but us here," Henry said.

As they neared the six unknown vessels Henry and Marie saw vipers combating raiders as the baseship fired volley after volley of missiles at the six unknown ships as a few additional vipers attacked the missiles.

"Those ships are civilians," Henry noted.

"I'll hail them."

"Attention Colonial vessels, this is Raptor 8963S from the Battlestar _Sola_, we request permission to dock," Marie called into the wireless. There was static and then…

"_Thank the gods! You're from a Battlestar? This is Major Alexander Grimm aboard the freighter _Pandora._ We're a little busy right now, so dock at starboard airlock six!" _A stern yet happy voice said over the wireless.

"They seem happy to see us," Marie said bluntly.

"They've been out here with only Vipers to defend them… I think they're allowed to be happy," Henry replied as they neared the _Pandora_.

**Freighter **_Pandora_**, Command Centre**

"Thank the gods," Major Alexander Grimm said to himself as he looked around the command centre to see weary yet happy faces. More people had survived.

However their happiness was short lived when a missile from the basestar impacted on the cruise liner _Oasis_.

"_Oasis_ reports heavy damage to her hull!" Libby Mitchell, the communications officer called out.

"Damnit! We can't stay here much longer!" Grimm shouted. He looked out the windows of the bridge. The vipers of the 42nd Archangel squadron were keeping the cylons at bay but they could only hold out for so long.

"Is the Raptor crew aboard yet?" Grimm asked as the bridge doors opened and a man and a woman in flight suits came in.

"There you are! We'll make introductions later but right now I need the whereabouts of your Battlestar," he said gruffly.

"Not just a Battlestar sir, we have multiple warships and forty nine civilian vessels," the man said.

"Thank the gods for miracles!" Grimm shouted, "We've been out here alone with only the Archangel and Raven squadrons for protection."

"Weren't they on the _Acropolis_?" the woman asked. Grimm recognised her voice as the woman who had hailed his ship.

"We picked them up when she was destroyed over Virgon. We removed their networking. This ship here is a confiscated smuggling freighter we had aboard the Battlestar _Io_. We used it to abandon ship."

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

"Sir, the Raptor we sent to the third planet is overdue."

"What? Who's crewing that Raptor?" Aidan asked.

"Night-Rider and Frogfoot sir. It could just be trouble with their FTL drive."

"Maybe… Dispatch the _Hestia_ to search for them. A _Gungnir_ should be able to defend itself in case of Cylons. Send the _Scythes_ _Hera_ and _Neptune_ to act as escorts."

**Command Centre, Freighter **_Pandora_

"Sir the Basestar has launched more missiles, this time at the _Doris_."

"We can't lose a tanker. Have the vipers intercept!" Grimm shouted.

"Sir, three new DRADIS contacts!"

"Cylons?"

"Colonial sir."

The _Gungnir_ class heavy escort _Hestia_ rolled onto her port at a distance of twelve miles from the basestar. Her fifteen heavy port railguns flashed sending fifteen slugs into the basestar, covering it with fire as the _Scythes_ attacked with their medium railguns doing further damage to the basestar.

The basestar tore apart in a series of secondary explosions as missile batteries and fuel tanks ignited, releasing further destruction on the Cylon vessel.

"Basestar destroyed sir," the DRADIS operator called out as the baseship winked off the DRADIS screen.

"Good. Seems like the vipers are mopping up the raiders," Grimm said with relief in his voice.

"Incoming transmission sir," an ensign said.

"Put it through."

"_Attention Colonial civilian ships, this is the Gunstar _Hestia. _Please acknowledge." _Grimm raised the phone.

"Transmission received _Hestia_. Thank the gods you're here. The two raptor pilots here tell me you have a fleet out there," he said jovially.

"_Their right. Would you like to see?"_

"Best offer I've had in my whole life."

-o0o-

_Earlier today we received six more civilian ships- the _Pandora, Doris, Oasis, Bravo-22, Rhea, Invictus _and_ Lady Luck_. _Doris _and_ Bravo-22_ are tankers so the fleet's fuel reserves have been replenished. The new ships have been a major boost to morale. We also now have two more squadrons- The Archangel Viper squadron and the Raven Raptor squadron._

_Eoin is still asleep and hasn't waken up yet- Lauren is undergoing surgery as I write this. As temporary commander of the fleet I have plotted a course to a secret Colonial space station way out here in the Prolmar sector named the Gauntlet Anchorage. Officially named 'Scrapping Yard PS-01', it should have ships- there is a mothball fleet anchored there. We have around 80,000 civilians on 55 ships, which should enable us to train some crews for these ships._

_I can only hope the Cylons haven't found the station._

_Aidan Devlin_

Aidan put the pen down and filed the letter away in the small filing cabinet in his quarters. He opened the door and walked for a while until he came to the brig.

"Time to interrogate these 'Cylons'" he muttered as the marine outside the door let him pass. He looked into the cell and saw the two of them.

They were shackled and a marine guard stood inside the cell with an assault rifle.

"Open cell."

The marine opened the door and Aidan walked in.

"Hello, toasters," he 'greeted'.

"I find that to be racist," the black man said. He was rewarded by a vicious backhand.

"Shut your frakkin' mouth!" Aidan yelled as the man rubbed the side of his head. He started pacing the cell, unnerving the female.

"So, you two were captured where? The computer core? Guess what? We know how you performed your cowardly attack. Infecting the CNP- that was a cheap shot. And you know what? Every ship in this fleet has purged the CNP- yet you retards try anyway? Wouldn't you have known when we fought back?"

"We were hoping that you still had some network not linked to any important systems and use it to connect some of the more important ones. The plan was to use _Univerisa_'s weapons on the civilian ships," the woman said.

"Shut the frak up," the man said to her. Aidan growled. He grabbed his pistol and smacked the man across the face with the grip.

"Speak when spoken to!"

Blood flowed down the side of the male Cylon's face where Aidan had struck him. Aidan was half expecting motor oil.

"You people sure went to a lot of trouble to appear human," he stated.

"God's plan works in mysterious ways," the blonde muttered. The man shot her a cold glance.

"There is no God, moron," he sneered. Aidan smacked the man with his pistol again, sending him sprawling onto the floor of the cell.

"Frak up."

Fed up, Aidan stormed from the room.

**CIC, Battlestar** _Sola_

"FTL, plot us a jump to these coordinates," Aidan said, walking into the CIC. He handed a sheet of paper to the FTL officer.

"Yes sir."

"Where are we going?" Sam asked.

"A secret space station with a mothball fleet," Aidan replied.

"How'd you find out? Frak a spook?"

"In your dreams, I rummaged through Eoin's filing cabinet," Aidan replied with a crafty smirk.

"Sir, coordinates transferred to all ships, everyone is ready to jump."

"Once we jump in I want all ships to form a defensive formation around the civilians," Aidan ordered.

"5…4…3…2…1… Jump!" Jackson called out.

**Gauntlet Anchorage**

As the fleet appeared in near the Gauntlet station the gunstars and Battlestars spread out to provide maximum covering fire for the civilians.

"Report!" Sam called out.

"All ships present and accounted for sir."

"Just what are we expecting here in terms of ships?" Sam asked.

"If Eoin's files are right, we have twenty Jotunn class gunstars, five _Scorpion_ class Battlestars, two dozen squadrons of Vipers from mkIIs to VIs, and a _Glaive_ class command ship."

"That's quite the firepower."

"DRADIS contacts!"

"Set condition one throughout the fleet, range?" Aidan yelled.

"Fifty miles!"

"That's in optical range. Put it up on the viewscreen!" Sam ordered.

He and Aidan turned to look at said viewscreen.

What they saw surprised them.

A 450 meter long _Vanir_ class logistical command cruiser was belching flame from one of it's twin hulls. A trio of _Maul_ class missile cruisers were floating without power, while a _Brimir_ carrier tried to vainly escape from a volley of missiles. The ship was heavily damaged and a second _Brimir_ fired some shots at the hostile forces. A _Mercury_ class Battlestar exploded, sending a 300 meter long section of her bow shooting off into space. A third _Brimir_ was slowly but surely falling to sustained missile impacts as a two kilometre long _Leviathan_ class Battlestar and a _Gungnir_ were pounded by missiles, apparently powerless.

This destruction was being dished out by five Cylon Basestars.

"OPEN FIRE!" Aidan screamed as the fleet opened up with their railcannons, sending more than two hundred slugs towards the basestars.

Two were destroyed instantly, massive explosions ripping through their fragile armour while another two were simply incinerated.

More slugs carved into the last basestar which feebly tried to power up it's FTL before it was hit with four slugs from _Sola_, breaching the reactor. The ship disappeared in a massive red fireball.

The Cylon Raiders charged the new arrivals only to be cut down by the dozens by hundreds of flak guns, shrapnel ripping the tight squadrons to shreds. It was all over in less than three minutes.

"All hostiles destroyed sir, surviving Colonial ships seem to be regaining power," Sam said.

"Incoming transmission sir."

"Put it though," Aidan grunted.

"_I don't care who the frak you are, but thank shit you're here. I'm Admiral Mark Evans, and welcome to Gauntlet Station. My defense fleet got attacked by what I'm guessing to be cylons. They used some kind of virus or backdoor to disable our systems. The Carriers weren't affected since they are older, but they aren't ship killers."_

"I'm Commander Aidan Devlin, acting commander of BSG 40 while Admiral Lundy recovers from combat wounds."

"_Lundy? The young fella? He frakked his XO yet?"_

"Not that I know of sir… It is my sad duty to inform you that this fleet, and your fleet are all that remains of the Colonies."

"_Say WHAT?"_

"The Cylons attacked in force and disabled most of our ships. The entire fleet apart from us is gone. The toasters then nuked our planets."

"_Bastards._"

"I completely agree sir. We're here to get some extra firepower to defend our refugees."

"_The mothball fleet is yours. My battlegroup is tagging along_."

"Good choice sir."

"_Evans out_."

"Get the _Cradle_ on the horn. We need to start loading up these mothballs. Any extra slips are to be used to repair the battlegroup," Aidan ordered, as the fleet moved towards the looming form of Gauntlet Station.

**Unknown place**

"_Where am I?" Lauren asked. She got up and looked around. She was in a dark, utilitarian corridor that had white, square shaped lights. Wearing a bath robe, she heard a voice- the voice of a woman. _

"_Hello?" Lauren called out. She was feeling nervous now, but she steeled herself and began to walk towards the voice through the bleak corridors. She came to a room and almost screamed._

_In the middle of the room there was a woman, in a tank of strange fluid. _

"_What.. Who are you?" Lauren asked. _

_The 'woman' looked at her with a focused expression._

"_I? I am a monument to all your sins."_

"_What?"_

"_Come close and listen well."_

_Reluctantly, Lauren crept closer and knelt down beside the thing._

_It reached out and grabbed her with inhuman speed. Lauren screamed and squirmed, but the other 'woman' was much stronger._

"_Listen… The Few have run the Gauntlet to find the relics… forced to look to the past. The one named the Bucket has survived- the Galactic Queen- another relic. She has rescued frightened lambs from the Anchorage…"_

"_Do you mean the Galactica?" Lauren asked, remembering the nickname 'Bucket'._

"_The stars grow cold and unfriendly, the cycle of the Universe slows. You must find the one known as Thrace- she will lead the human race to it's end."_

"_I'm sorry, I don't understand…"_

"_All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again… and again…and again… and again…"_

"_Stop!" Lauren yelled, she really wanted to get out of this place. But the woman did not stop. Then she saw it. A centurion had appeared._

"_And again… And again…"_

"_Let me go!" she screamed as the Centurion raised its weapon arm. _

_It fired._

_Her vision faded into darkness, but she still heard it._

"_And again… and again…"_

With that, freshly off the operating table, Lauren Patience awoke.

**Thanks for reading, please leave a review. This is a late update, sorry about that.**

**Major thanks to Just a Crazy Man for he idea of Grimm and his lost ships. Thank you my friend :) and happy birthday**

**Update on Military ships-**

**Battlestars**

_Universia_

_Sola_

_Oceania_

_Crusader_

_Nova (Mercury)_

_Demigod (Colombia)_

_Colossus- Evans' ship_

**Gunstars**

_Kobol_

_Deep Impact_

_Hestia_

_Valania_

**Bezerker cruisers**

_Ionia_

_Nuclear Winter_

_Hades_

_Dark Sword_

_Calypso_

_Steel Talon_

_Aegis Star_

_Aegis Fate_

_Lucid Dream_

**Scythes**

_Corona Flare_

_Neptune_

_Guardian_

_Hera_

_Vulcan_

**Vanir command ships**

_Valour_

**Brimir carriers**

_Threshold_

_Second Wind_

_Dark Horse_

**Maul class missile cruisers**

_Bombard_

_ThunderFlame_

_Relentless_

**Thanks for reading, unfortunately the next update won't be for a while.**

**Thanks,**

**Me.**


	4. Chapter 4

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**OUT WITH THE OLD…**

"Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value"- Einstein

**Just some info here-**

**Valkyrie Battlestar**

**Length- 1200 metres **

**Armament- 26 dual medium railcannon turrets, 4 dual heavy railcannons, 6 missile silos, 450 flak cannons**

**Units (Pre-Fall) 60**

**Units (Remnant) 3**

**Former workhouse of the Colonial fleet the Valkyrie combines speed and firepower. Mark Ones can be identified by a 'wing' over their engine block, and mark twos lack this wing. Sola and Oceania are mark ones, Universia is a mark two.**

**Mercury Battlestar**

**Length- 1780 metres**

**Armament- 30 twin railcannon turrets, 4 fixed dual railcannons, 10 missile bays, 520 flak cannons**

**Units (Pre-Fall) 20**

**Units (Remnant) 1 **

**The largest mass produced ship in the Colonial fleet these ships carry a formidable array of weapons and nuclear missiles. **

**Leviathan Battlestar/Warstar**

**Length- 2200 metres**

**Armament- 40 twin railcannon turrets, 15 fixed bow guns, 780 flak cannons, 35 missile bays**

**Units (Pre-Fall) 5**

**Units (Remnant) 1 **

**A massive Battlestar sometimes named a warstar this ship resembles a scale up Mercury. Usually used to coordinate fleets due to an extensive command and control system.**

_Previously-_

"_Those ships are civilians," Henry noted. _

"_I'll hail them."_

"_Attention Colonial vessels, this is Raptor 8963S from the Battlestar Sola, we request permission to dock," Marie called into the wireless. There was static and then…_

"_Thank the gods! You're from a Battlestar? This is Major Alexander Grimm aboard the freighter Pandora. We're a little busy right now, so dock at starboard airlock six!" A stern yet happy voice said over the wireless._

_Xxx_

"_I don't care who the frak you are, but thank shit you're here. I'm Admiral Mark Evans, and welcome to Gauntlet Station. My defense fleet got attacked by what I'm guessing to be cylons. They used some kind of virus or backdoor to disable our systems. The Carriers weren't affected since they are older, but they aren't ship killers."_

_Xxx_

"_Let me go!" she screamed as the Centurion raised its weapon arm. _

_It fired._

_Her vision faded into darkness, but she still heard it._

"_And again… and again…"_

_With that, freshly off the operating table, Lauren Patience awoke._

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

"We've arrived at the station sir, and Admiral Evans is leaving command to you," Sam said to Aidan as he walked into CIC.

"Get _Cradle_ on the horn. I want six _Scorpion_ Battlestars and eight _Jotunns_ in the slips."

"That all sir?"

"That's all we can take. All the other slips are in use repairing the Gauntlet defense fleet and _Univerisa_. We'll take as many fighters as possible and all the ammo and nukes we need," Aidan said.

"How much ammo are we looking at?"

"Almost a million flak rounds, about twelve thousand railgun slugs, five thousand missiles and about two hundred nukes. We're also taking spare parts and FTLs from the remaining mothballs."

"How long will it take to get them here?" Sam asked.

"It'll be a few hours. Once we get away we'll train some civvies to crew the _Jotunns_ and the _Scorpions_."

"And if the Cylons show?"

"We kick their asses," Aidan replied with a smirk. Suddenly the comms officer walked up to Aidan.

"Yes ensign?"

"Sir, message from Doctor Barnes on the _Universia_. Colonel Patience has regained consciousness but she's in a distressed state."

"Get me a shuttle."

**Ten minutes later, **_Universia_

One of the few places on _Universia_ that was undamaged, the sick bay was full of screams as Lauren screamed, tears rolling down her face.

"It's okay! Please calm down!" Barnes said. Just then the door opened and Aidan walked in.

"Sitrep!"

"She's awake, but something's causing her to panic. Possibly a nightmare."

"I thought you said Eoin would recover before her," Aidan asked, slightly confused. Barnes nodded.

"That's what should have happened. But, it didn't."

"Great explanation."

"They're going to frakking kill us all!" Lauren screamed.

"You're safe in sickbay Colonel," Aidan told her.

"Would you all shut the frak up?" a familiar voice said from behind. Surprised, Aidan spun around to see Eoin, wearing a pair of bed trousers and a dressing gown. Everyone was surprised. Even Lauren shut up.

"Are you alright Lauren?" he asked, walking over slowly.

"I'm… I'm alright now. I don't know what came over me," the XO replied.

"Well, you seem to have recovered much faster than expected. We patched up your insides but you'll have to wear bandages around your stomach for a few weeks, and avoid strenuous exercise," Barnes told Lauren.

"And me?" Eoin asked.

"You're fine but you may feel discomfort for the next week or two. I'm discharging both of you," Barnes replied, and he walked off to deal with other patients.

"I'm going to my quarters to get some rest, I suggest you do the same Lauren," Eoin said. The XO gave a small smile.

"Yes sir," she said.

"Do you want me to um… Walk you to your quarters in case something happens?" Eoin asked.

"I'd like that."

The two walked out of sickbay side by side. Aidan smirked.

-o0o-

The two talked and laughed, before arriving at Lauren's quarters.

"Would you like to come in?" Lauren asked.

"I'm sorry, but I have important stuff to do. Some other time, okay?"

"Yes, okay."

There was a pause.

"It's good to see you Lauren."

"Likewise Eoin."

-o0o-

There was a knock on the door leading into Eoin's quarters.

"Enter," he barked. Aidan walked in.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked. Eoin motioned to a seat facing his desk. Aidan sat down and Eoin sat facing him.

"Drink?" the Admiral asked.

"Please." Eoin poured two glasses of sweet alcohol. Aidan took a sip and let the fluid run down his throat.

"Good stuff."

"One of my last bottles. Anyway, I called you here so that I could inform you that _Universia_ is undergoing the _Sigurd_ modification."

"_Sigurd_?"

"An upgrade for _Valkyrie_ class Battlestars. It'll add double flight pods like _Mercury_, which means increased launch capabilities and more weapons. To compensate for the extra mass there is also two more engines. The crews are still repairing her so they may as well upgrade her," Eoin said.

"Do we have enough raw material for this?"

"I checked, and we do. Anyway, how is the transfer from gauntlet station going?"

"I put Sam in command of it, and we should be finished any minute now," Aidan replied. Eoin downed the last of his drink then got up.

"Where are you going?"

"Transfer my flag to another ship until _Universia_ is repaired," Eoin replied, reaching for his uniform.

"Oh no you're not. You heard Barnes, you have to rest," Aidan said.

"But-"

"No buts. I'll be fine in command to you recover some more. Now go to bed."

-o0o-

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

Aidan walked into the CIC, and Samuel quickly saluted.

"SITREP," Aidan barked.

"Everything we need has been transferred sir, and we can leave now," the XO said with a smile. Aidan nodded.

"Distribute jump coordinates to all ships and spin up FTL drives one and two."

**Somewhere else, Cylon Basestar, in pursuit of Colonial remnants **

"It was meant to be so simple."

"Cavil-," a voice began.

"No! We just had to swoop in, let the backdoor do our work for us, and then start throwing nukes about. Simple. No humans left. So why do we get reports of entire_ fleets_ surviving?" Cavil was shaking with suppressed rage. The other humanoid Cylons looked at eachother.

A two spoke up.

"God obviously wants us to have a challenge," he said.

"Cut the God crap!" Cavil snapped.

"What are we going to do?" a three asked. Cavil glared at her.

"Simple, sister. I'm taking personal command of the fifth resurrection fleet and chasing down _Universia_," he said.

"How many ships?" an eight asked.

"Six basestars, nine escorts and a resurrection ship. I'm giving Crystal the third resurrection fleet to go after _Galactica_," Cavil stated.

"Crystal's not a good commander," the three warned. Crystal was a six.

"She does her job," the six said.

"Very well then."

-o0o-

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

"All ships jumping now sir."

"Good," Aidan said as _Sola_ snapped into the next system.

"Anything on sensors?" Sam asked.

"DRADIS is clean for hostiles, all fleet ships present and accounted for. The system has a single dwarf planet around the primary and a Ragnar sized gas planet with a number of moons," the DRADIS operator, Lieutenant Peters said.

"Spectral analysis is picking up oxygen and water vapour from both the gas giant and one of it's moons. The moon is oceanic sir with an oxygen rich atmosphere. The dwarf planet has tylium deposits," Peters continued. Aidan smiled at the news.

"What a stroke of luck, eh?" Sam asked. Aidan nodded.

"I want _Raptors_ to sweep that moon for anything edible, the fleet's ships don't have much meat, even with the two agro ships in Grimm's group," he ordered.

**Raptor 76353BS40**

"Approaching the moon now," Lieutenant Johnny 'Romeo' Saunders called out to his ECO, Junior Lieutenant Jurgen 'Candyman' McDouglas.

"Roger, standing by to launch ROV," Candyman stated. The _Raptor_ entered the moon's atmosphere, and the clouds parted to show a glittering ocean.

"Look at that for a view," Romeo called out, looking at the gas giant which took up a lot of the blue sky.

"There's an archipelago," he said, pointing to a chain of small islands in the distance.

"Launching ROV," Candyman called out. There was a clunk as the ROV dropped out from under the _Raptor_ and splashed into the water near a reef. The _Raptor _landed smoothly on one of the islands in the archipelago.

"Powering the engines down," Romeo stated. He also opened the _Raptor's_ hatch to let a cool sea breeze come in.

"Haven't felt that in a while," Candyman said. Romeo jumped out of the ship and onto the sand of the small island.

"S'warm out here. Must be pretty tropical," he said, looking around to see the sparkling ocean while removing his flight hemet. The island had a few palm trees on it.

"I got a feed from the ROV, its half a mile from our position at a depth of five metres." The DRADIS screen was replaced with the camera feed from the ROV.

The ROV, or Remotely Operated Vehicle, was roughly the size of a trashcan and weighed about fifty kilograms. It could be fitted to a small mounting underneath the _Raptor_ and then dropped when over a body of water. A downside was that it created drag in atmosphere.

The ROV carried three color cameras and a powerful spotlight, and could operate at a depth of two hundred metres.

"Who's sweeping the gas giant?" Candyman asked.

"Coots and Mangler."

"Poor Mangler, Coots is a prick," Candyman replied. Lieutenant Mathew 'Coots' Stephens was a pompous, smug bastard. 'Coots' stood for 'Constantly Over-emphasizes Own Tactical Significance'- referring to the fact that the man thought of himself as hero. He hated the callsign but the CAG made him keep it.

"Alright, ROV is diving, the water is fifteen metres deep here. Sonar is picking up movement," Candyman called out as he controlled the small machine with a joystick. His eyes never left the camera feed.

"Sonar pings are fish! This is a coral reef like on Picon or Aquaria."

The ROV's cameras showed an amazing spectra of colours as small blue fish darted about in a large group. They spotted some sort of large lobster over five metres long and a sleek shark like fish which they guessed was top of the food chain.

"This moon is teeming with life," Candyman said. Romeo simply nodded.

"I wonder if ECM and Ogre are finding this stuff too," he said, referring to Lieutenant Martin 'ECM (Enlisted Chick Magnet) Tucker and Lieutenant Hannah 'Ogre' Loughran. (So called because she was ugly)

"I'm sure they are. Get ready to recover the ROV and return to _Sola_."

**Two hours later, CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

Aidan let himself smile as he read the report.

"Water and food, but the water will need to be filtered to get the salt out," Sam stated.

"And the gas planet?" Aidan asked. Sam shook his head.

"Just some sort of airborne algae, but plenty of oxygen." They were interrupted by an ensign.

"Commander, Admiral Lundy on the line from _Cradle_."

"Thank you ensign," Aidan said picking up the phone.

"_Aidan, I would like some of those lobsters brought up from the planet. It would make a great addition to my collection."_ Eoin had a passion for marine biology. He had an unused area of _Universia_ turned into a large aquarium, and had a tank of lobsters and fish in his quarters.

"Yes sir, I'll have it arranged."

"_A male and a female, don't forget. We'll probably never come back to this place but put a beacon here just in case."_

"How is _Universia's_ modification going?"

"_They're working on enlarging the port flight pod. Most of the interior damage has been patched up and the extra weapons have started to be installed. I have to go, me and Lauren have to see Barnes. Because we both recovered quicker than normal he wants us to report for check-ups daily."_

"I'll leave you to it. _Sola_ out." Aidan put the phone down.

"Sir, do you want to start directing the food and agro ships down to the planet? They are going to examine the schooling fish one of the _Raptors_ found and see if they are edible," Sam said.

"Yes, I'll get right on it. Eoin wants some of those lobsters brought up."

"Serious?"

"I think he took a blow to the head."

Both of them chuckled.

-o0o-

Lieutenant Hannah 'Ogre' Loughran flew her _Raptor_ near the very edge of the solar system, outside of the fleet's sensor range. She was tasked with looking for anything strange- strange meaning cylons. She was without an ECO for this mission as all ECOs were tasked with coordinating the fleet's restock at the water moon. She had been on the moon with ECM and she thought it was a pretty nice place.

Suddenly her DRADIS beeped, just as there was a flash of light.

"Holy frak," she whispered as six Cylon basestars appeared in flashes of light, followed by nine escorts and a large, ribbed ship. She didn't even have time to spool the FTL drive before a missile ploughed into her _Raptor_, blowing it to pieces.

**Basestar Command**

"We destroyed a _Raptor _patrolling the system. The colonials could be here or it could be just a scout," a three informed Cavil.

"I want Heavy Raiders to establish a DRADIS sweep and search the entire system. If they are here they probably haven't detected us and we can get the drop on them," Cavil replied.

"By your command," the Three said as she put her hand in the data-stream.

"Raiders are away," a four confirmed.

-o0o-

**Three hours later**

"DRADIS contact!"

"Set condition one throughout the fleet! All ships stand by for jump! All raptors return to the fleet!" Aidan shouted.

"Target identified as a Cylon Raider, CBDR on an intercept course for the fleet!" Lieutenant Peters called out.

"Order all ships on the planet to cease operations!"

"They have over fifty tons of food," Sam warned.

"That's why we can't leave them. I'd rather have fifty tons than none, even if most of it is fish now." Sam smiled.

"Sir the Raider has jumped away!" Peters called.

"Probably gone to get his buddies. Order all civilians to jump to the emergency coordinates. All units are to cover the food ships as they come up from the planet," Aidan ordered.

"Civilians are jumping now sir," Peters informed. _Sola_ came about into a defensive position flanked by the _Bezerker_ cruiser _Steel Talon,_ the _Brimir_ carrier _Threshold, _the _Gungnirs Hestia _and _Deep Impact_ and the _Mercury _Battlestar _Nova_. The other warships also broke into groups with the _Colossus_ at the centre of the largest group.

Just then six basestars jumped in near the outermost group, followed by seven _Liche_ class escorts. Two _Liches_ had remained with the Resurrection ship. Although Cavil only had fifteen ships plus the _Raiders_ from the Basestars against the Colonials 33 ships he felt quite confident.

The _Liche_ escort resembled a basestar but was much smaller at just one hundred and fifty metres long . It resembled two elliptical shapes on top of eachother with a vertical connecting spar. Housing twenty-one missile launchers it was a threat to the Colonial _Scythe_.

All hell broke loose as the basestars erupted with missile fire. Each Colonial group threw up a wall of flak, stopping the missiles. _Colossus_ opened up with her massive bow guns sending fifteen large slugs crashing against one of the baseships, causing huge explosions and explosive decompressions. Another Cylon basestar moved infront of its crippled comrade. The _Raiders_ and _Vipers_ duelled in several massive furballs which where separated by walls of flak. While they fought the civilians on the planet started to jump away one by one.

Several missiles struck the _Nova_, damaging the bow of the ship while two missiles struck the _Scythe_ escort _Corona Flare_ amidships causing fires to rage out of control. A ten kiloton tactical nuclear warhead from a _Raider_ struck the _Colossus_, doing very little damage. The crippled basestar blew apart as _Sola_ ended it with five slugs, ripping into the ship's reactor core.

Space was lit up by missile trails and detonating flak as _Hestia_ and _Steel Talon_ laid waste to a _Liche_, the small cylon ship only firing two missiles before it blew apart which were easily shrugged off by the Colonial ships.

The _Brimir_ carrier _Dark Horse_ took a hit to the number three engine and the command ship _Valour_ fired off chaff to cover the carrier.

_Colossus' _bow guns flashed again, devastating another basestar that was finished off by the _Bezerker_ cruiser _Aegis Star_. _Sola _was hit by three tactical nukes similar to the one that hit the _Colossus_. The combined thirty kilotons heavily damaged _Sola's_ engines and port flight pod. Another two _Liches_ were wrecked and another Basestar was heavily damaged by the _Columbia_ Battlestar _Demigod._

That was when Cavil ordered the _Raiders_ to begin kamikaze attacks on the Battlestars. Although a good deal of Raiders were stopped by flak several impacted on the Colonial ships. _Nova_ started to list as several _Raiders_ impacted her engine block.

"This is Cavil! Jump out of here!" Cavil said over the wireless to the Resurrection ship and its escorts which where still on the system's fringes However the basestar's wireless transmitter was damaged and the crew of the Resurrection ship thought that Cavil was ordering them to jump _to_ _his position. _He was horrified when the ship and its escorts jumped straight into the clusterfrak.

The colonials assumed that the ship was a threat due to its size, and so two of the _Maul_ missile cruisers, _Bombard _and _ThunderFlame_ launched several fifty megaton nuclear missiles at the ship. The nukes simply shattered the ship which was reduced to an expanding debris field and a cloud of residual oxygen.

Cavil didn't have time to be horrified any longer though as his ship was wrecked. Slugs pummelled the ship which blew apart in a massive explosion.

"All enemy contacts destroyed sir, and the civilians are away," Peters.

"Get us out of here."

**Thank you for reading.**

**I'm also running out of ships to steal from Galactica online.**

**It will be a while (again) before the next update.**

**Review!**


	5. Home

******THANK YOU READERS FOR 3,509 HITS! :D**

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

"There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago."—Robert Oppenheimer

_Previously-_

"_Holy frak," she whispered as six Cylon basestars appeared in flashes of light, followed by nine escorts and a large, ribbed ship. She didn't even have time to spool the FTL drive before a missile ploughed into her Raptor, blowing it to pieces.__  
_

_Xxx_

"_They're working on enlarging the port flight pod. Most of the interior damage has been patched up and the extra weapons have started to be installed. I have to go, me and Lauren have to see Barnes. Because we both recovered quicker than normal he wants us to report for check-ups daily."_

_Xxx _

"_Spectral analysis is picking up oxygen and water vapour from both the gas giant and one of it's moons. The moon is oceanic sir with an oxygen rich atmosphere. The dwarf planet has tylium deposits," Peters continued. Aidan smiled at the news._

**2 weeks since the battle of the ocean moon**

_I am pleased with how quickly Universia is being upgraded. Both the flight pod extensions are finished and all of the new weapons have been installed. The new engines are being installed as I write this. _

_Work was delayed slightly after the last battle however as Sola had some damage that needed repaired. Minor repairs had to made to some of the other ships. Universia will be re-launched in a week or two as the new engines are connected up._

_In the last system we unfortunately could not mine the tyllium on the system's dwarf planet. If the cylons hadn't have shown up then we could have. However civilian morale has increased ten-fold after they learned of our victory against a cylon fleet._

_Rear Admiral Eoin. A Lundy_

**CIC, Battlestar **_Sola_

"Sir, we've got a DRADIS contact. No IFF, and it is heading towards the fleet. Most likely a DRADIS ghost or debris."

"I want the CAP to intercept, if it is an asteroid or some other piece of space crap it could pose a threat to a civilian ship if there is a collision," Aidan ordered.

**Viper 7836GAS**

Commander of _Sola's_ airgroup, Major Jamie 'Clam' Shell, listened as his wireless buzzed.

"_CAG, this is _Sola _actual. Can you see the DRADIS contact?"_

"Not yet commander, I estimate five minutes to optical range," Clam replied.

"_Report in when you see it."_

"Roger, CAG out."

Clam looked over at his wingmate, Lieutenant Alicia 'Cornbread' Donnelly. The two _Vipers_ were accompanied by a _Raptor_ piloted by ECM and Mangler.

"Alright, weapons free," Clam called out.

"_Roger that, safeties are off,"_ Cornbread called out.

"_CAG, ECM. Judging by DRADIS readings it's a metal rich asteroid, recommend missiles."_

"Roger that, switching to missiles," Clam said.

The CAP flew towards the target as Clam armed one of his ship-to-ship missiles. He squinted as he entered optical range.

"What the frak?!" he shouted.

What he saw was roughly the size of his _Viper_. And was clearly _not_ an asteroid.

It was a probe. It had a wireless dish on its main body and several long poles coming of the main body.

"_What is that?"_ ECM asked.

"_Some kinda probe,"_ Cornbread answered.

"What is it doing all the way out here?" Clam wondered aloud. He turned on his wireless.

"Sola, this is Clam. The target is some kind of probe."

"_This is Sola-Actual, what do you mean?"_

"It's a probe commander. That's all I can say."

"_Bring it aboard."_

"Yes sir, right away. CAG out."

"_Want me to fire a tow cable boss?" _ECM asked.

"Yeah."

ECM positioned his _Raptor_ behind the probe. He activated a magnetic tow cable launcher. The cable fired and impacted on the probe.

"_Probe secured."_

"Let's go home then."

**Port flight pod, Battlestar **_Sola_

The _Raptor_ entered the pod with the probe in tow. The _Raptor_ positioned the probe on the elevator leading down into the hangar deck.

Eoin, Aidan, Lauren and Sam watched the elevator come down with the probe perched on it.

"I want to know what this thing is. Is it ours?" Aidan asked. Eoin shook his head.

"Doesn't match anything in the book, military or civilian," the admiral replied. He walked forward and put his hand on one of the probe's extensions. The extension was tipped with some kind of instrument.

He could see the word 'Voyager-1' on the side of the probe, and a gold plate of some kind.

"Every probe we ever launched had its Colony of origin on the side. That was the law," Eoin continued.

"It looks like it's been out here a long time," Aidan stated. Sam held a scanner near the probe.

"Scanner says the probe is nuclear powered but has used up all of its fuel. Judging by the instruments this thing has I think it's an exploratory probe," he said.

"Help me get this off," Eoin said to Aidan and the two men tugged on the golden disc on the side of the probe. It came loose suddenly causing the two men to fall back, with the disc landing on Eoin.

"Well, we got it off, but can we open this disc?" Lauren asked.

"What do you mean 'we'?" Eoin asked with a smile, getting a smile in return. Aidan ran the disc over with his hands. He slid another disc out of the first one.

"It's a record like they had before the first War," Sam noted.

"Look at this," Aidan suddenly said. Everyone looked at the writing on the record.

_From Earth._

Everyone's jaw dropped. For a while, no one spoke. Eoin was the first to do so.

"Earth? As in _the_ Earth? The thirteenth colony?" he asked with amazement. As a child he had always been fascinated by the thirteenth colony and the stories surrounding it.

"Well, if it _is_ from Earth, it's a long way from home," Aidan stated.

"How so?" Lauren asked, not tanking her eyes of the words.

"When plotting our course I noticed the nearest main sequence A, G, F or K class star is back at that ocean moon. Earth certainly wasn't there. The nearest A, G, F or K is almost two hundred light years from here. We're over one nine hundred light years from the Colonies. We've been out here for months, jumping about two dozen times a day."

"And the nearest star?" Eoin asked.

"A K class star named Home funnily enough," Aidan replied.

"Sir, if I may add, at the speed this probe was travelling it would have taken hundreds of thousands of years to travel 200 light years," Sam added.

"Maybe it was dropped out of a starship on it's voyage," Lauren suggested.

"We're going to Earth," Eoin suddenly said.

"What? We don't even know where it is! It might not even be in our area of the galaxy," Aidan shouted.

"Don't care. It's not as if we're going anywhere. We're just putting distance on the Colonies," Eoin countered.

"I'm with you," Lauren told him.

"I'm going to make a statement," Eoin said before walking off.

-o0o-

"_My fellow Colonials, this is Admiral Lundy. Today we have found a clue to where we should go- we have found a probe from the thirteenth colony of Earth. We have plotted a course to a star named Home in order to find some answers to this puzzle. However I know this for certain- Earth will become our new home._

_For now we must escape the Cylons who are still chasing us. There is one thing we have neglected to tell you. The Cylons look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they our human. We have two humanoid Cylons in our brig, and at the moment they are not a threat while incarcerated._

_If you anyone acting strangely, report them to the nearest Colonial officer and we will bring a marine fireteam to remove the bastards. _

_I understand the shock you will feel over this. I was shocked too. However we will stick together as we have always done, and we will get through this. Earth will be our new home._

_So say we all. _

**West Garden, Luxury Liner **_Cryosis_

"This is nice," Eoin murmured while sipping an ambrosia. He and Aidan sat at the poolside bar while Lauren lounged about fifty feet away on a deck chair around the pool.

"Agreed. Evans said we needed a break," Aidan replied.

"So, do you think once we get to Earth, the thirteenth tribe will help us fight the Cylons?"

"Maybe. I just hope they exist," Aidan told him.

_Cryosis_ was a huge luxury liner, sister to the legendary _Cloud 9_ and operated by Novus line. She had some modifications that set her apart from her sisters. Firstly, she had a second 'pod', giving her the appearance of a huge letter 'H' with its biodome in-between the two pods, compared to the lopsided look of her sisters. She had twice as many engines as her sisters and had three FTL drives compared to her sister's one.

She also had a smaller, second biodome placed infront of the main dome. This dome was named 'James Peters Dome' after the founder of Novus lines. With over 2,000 passengers split into four classes, _Cryosis_ was the largest luxury liner ever built.

Eoin didn't reply and found himself looking at his XO from afar.

"You love her, don't you?" Aidan suddenly asked, taking the Admiral by surprise.

"What? I... Think so," the Admiral replied looking at his feet. Aidan gave him a heart grin and took another sip from his glass.

"I think she's a great girl. Smart, good looking. She isn't _stunning_ good looking, but she's modest… I think that's what makes her so attractive. There's not a line in her face or a mess in her hair," Eoin blurted out.

"I think her breasts are too small," Aidan said bluntly. Seeing the look Eoin gave him, he added ", Officer's digression."

"I don't care."

"I'm just saying. You can't find a fault in my logic there, bro," Aidan replied. Lauren got up out of her seat and walked over to the two men.

"Colonel," Eoin greeted. Aidan grinned slyly.

"I have to go," he said, before running off.

"Um…"

Lauren was wearing a two piece bikini but her midriff was wrapped in bandages.

"So, how are you? Want a drink?" Eoin asked. Lauren smiled.

"I'll have an ambrosia if you don't mind," she replied. Eoin told the bartender.

"So, how's the wound?" he asked.

"Not bad, I'll be able to take the bandages off soon, and then I'm going to have laser surgery to remove the scar. I know, vain and everything, but I couldn't resist," she answered with a shy smile.

"Universia is launching in five days," Eoin said.

"I can't wait, I kind of miss my job." Eoin then plucked up some courage.

"Would you like to discuss this over dinner, say 0700 hours?" Lauren gave him a curious look.

"I'd love to."

**Starlight Restaurant, Luxury Liner **_Cryosis _

"So, tell me about your family," Lauren said. She and Eoin sat at a table. Eoin wore his only civilian clothing, a white tuxedo and black pants, while Lauren wore a crimson ballroom gown she had acquired from a civilian.

"I guess I never really talk about them, so alright. As you know, my father was a quorum delegate. He dropped out of university and became a starliner pilot for InterSun. He got promoted to Captain and the long haul fleet quickly and became one of the youngest captains the company ever had. While on Caprica he met my mother. They married and nine months later I was born. My Dad was away a lot of the time, but I always gave him a big hug when he got back."

Lauren giggled and Eoin smiled.

"My mother always wanted to be a librarian. She has a degree in phycology and archaeology, and was an archaeologist before she met my father. My mother was very close to my grandmother Mary, and so was I. My mother became an usher at a theatre, a job she hated but couldn't get out of. My grandmother was a home help. My grandfather martin died when she was fifty nine, and I was eleven at the time. My grandma was very young for such a woman. When I was born, she bought me a big duffle coat I always got lost in. The first words she ever spoke to me were 'Welcome to your grannie's' when I came home from the hospital."

"What about Martin?" Lauren asked.

"I was kind of close to my grandfather. He was a Cylon war veteran and his hobby was building model tanks, and every so often he would let me have one. I still keep them in my quarters, along with a big teddy bear my dad got me when I was very young. My grandfather died of pneumonia after having leukaemia. The leukaemia was stopped, but he was weak after that and the pneumonia got him." Eoin blushed slightly at the mention of the teddy bear.

"It turned out to be the hospital's fault. They didn't enforce proper hygiene so he got sick. So we sued their ass off. My aunt was a lawyer, and we got almost five million cubits from the lawsuit. My dad used the money to go to an adult education centre, and got a degree in politics. He ran for quorum delegate immediately after. And he won. I will never know how, but he did. I was a Colonel at the time on an escort."

"Why do you keep talking about them in the past tense?" Lauren asked.

"Because they're all dead…." The admiral shed a tear as his voice broke.

"Every one of them…"

Lauren clasped his hand across the table.

"It's ok…" They sat in silence.

Eoin shook himself off.

"Sorry about that… So, what about your family?"

"I never knew my mother; she died giving birth to me. I was always with my father and I was very close to him. He was a police officer. Once busted the biggest drug shipment of all time… That's really all. He died when I was eighteen. Some bastard stabbed him in a back street when he was on patrol."

"I then went to the military academy, and here I am. Not much to tell."

Eoin heard the music in the background change to a slow, sad dance song.

"Do you want to dance? I promise I'll try not to step on your toes," he asked, blushing slightly. Lauren laughed and then smile warmly.

"I'll take you up on that."

So they danced, and Eoin kept his toe related promise. That night, he walked back to her suit. They were staying aboard _Cryosis_, and Eoin had managed to get them first class cabins.

However, that night he was haunted by dreams of his family. They weren't in the fleet, he had checked. They were aboard the Libran luxury liner _Zephyr_ at the time of the attacks. His sister Megan, his mother and father, and his grandmother.

-o0o-

**5 Days Later**

**CIC, Battlestar **_Universia_

"It's a pleasure to see you all again, and I miss the ones we lost in the attack. As we march on we will not forget them. Now we celebrate the rebirth of our ship. To your stations!" Eoin shouted. The CIC cheered, and Eoin saw Gladstone, Hughes and Simpson go to their respective stations. There were some new recruits, quickly trained to take the places of the dead from the attack. Everything had been cleaned up and there was no indicator that the ship had ever been boarded. Other than the dead list.

_Universia's_ relaunch had been timed to match the fleet's jump to Home. _Universia_ would once again lead the fugitive fleet.

"Helm, power up thrusters one through six," Eoin ordered.

"Prepare to sever docking umbilicals," Lauren called out.

"Tell _Cradle_ to clear all personnel from our slip…"

"Spin up FTL drives one and two…"

Like a well-oiled machine the two gave orders perfectly.

"_Cradle _reports clear for launch sir," Gladstone called out.

"Sever umbilicals… now!"

There was a rumble as _Universia_ broke free of _Cradle_. Her six thrusters were once again flooded with tyllium.

"Helm, ahead full," Eoin ordered. _Universia_ glided out of the slip, heading to resume her place at the front of the fleet.

The CIC again cheered. _Universia _flew alongside _Sola_ briefly before slowing down slightly once she got to the front of the fleet.

"Fleet assuming standard jump formation, all ships ready to jump," Simpson called out.

"Jump," Eoin said.

However, during the jump one of _Universia_'s computers had a small glitch, causing the ship's jump coordinates to be off a fraction of a degree. _Universia_ jumped ahead of the fleet by about 40,000 miles, sending her just above atmosphere of a blue planet.

The ship rumbled as the planets gravity pulled _Universia_ in.

"Sir! We're entering atmosphere of a planet!" Simpson shouted.

"Helm! Full rear!" Eoin ordered. _Universia's_ bow thrusters ignited to try and stop the ship but it was too late.

"We can't get out sir! We are losing altitude!" the helmswoman shouted. The klaxons began to wail as the ship shook.

"All hands, brace for turbulence!" Lauren called into her phone. _Universia's_ reinforced hull shook as she dropped like a stone.

Eoin and Lauren held onto the tactical table, clinging on for all they were worth.

"Activate ventral engines!" Eoin managed to shout. He saw the helmswoman activate the chemical rockets in _Universia's_ belly. Four large hull plates slid back, revealing the chemical rocket engines. They ignited with a flash of light and began to slow _Universia's_ descent.

"Slowing sir! FTL has cooled down and ready to jump!" the helmswoman reported triumphantly. Eoin cheered inwardly.

"Put us in in a stable gravitational point in orbit if you would be so kind Simpson!" he shouted. Simpson reached over and put in the coordinates on the FTL console.

"10,000 feet above the surface! We're cutting it a bit close!" Lauren called out, glancing at the DRADIS screen.

"Spinning up for a jump into the planet's fifth lagrangian point! Three! Two! One! Jump!" Simpson shouted.

_Universia_ snapped back into existence with such force that everyone in the CIC who was standing was thrown to the ground.

"Ow…" Eoin murmured. He picked himself up and then helped Lauren up. She thanked him and returned to the tactical table.

"DRADIS contact!" Simpson shouted. Eoin looked at Lauren and then at the DRADIS console.

"Identify!" he shouted. Simpson looked through his war-book.

"From the size of it, it's probably a Cylon basestar. Hang on… I getting about sixty ships of various sizes, they're most likely Cylon freighters sir," the lieutenant stated.

"Talk about out of the frying and pan and into the fire," Lauren muttered. Eoin reached for his handset.

"Launch blue and red squadrons to handle the raiders, gold squadron to go after the freighters, and any missile raptors we have!" he shouted.

"_Action stations, action stations. Incoming Cylon basestar. Set condition one throughout the ship," _Simpson shouted into the PA system.

"Align bow cannons, and load anti-ship rounds," Eoin shouted. _Universia_ had been equipped with _Mercury_ type bow cannons as part of the refit, giving tremendous firepower.

"Someone get a Raptor and find the rest of the fleet!" Lauren yelled.

"Enemy basestar is launching raiders, and coming about sir!" Simpson shouted.

"Raptor away sir, jumping now!" Gladstone called out.

"Cylon freighters are spinning up!" Simpson shouted. Just then the rest of the fleet jumped to _Universia_.

"The fleet is here sir! They are launching Vipers now," Simpson called out.

"Radiiological alarm, the basestar has armed four nukes. Estimated fifty megatons apiece," Lauren called out.

"Are we in weapons range?" Eoin asked.

"Yes sir!"

"Fire in three… two… one…"

"WAIT!" Simpson screamed.

Eoin looked at him. As did the whole CIC.

"Sorry sir, but I'm getting Colonial transponders," Simpson said. Eoin looked at the DRADIS display, and sure enough, the grey 'Unknowns' had changed to a green Battlestar icon , with small green Viper icons with civilian ship signals apparent as well.

"Colonials? It could be a trick. You can never know with those metal bastards," Lauren asked. Eoin continued to look at the DRADIS display.

"Send hostile challenge and recognition codes," he ordered.

"Attention unknown ship, this is the _Valkyrie-S _Battlestar _Universia_. Identify yourself or our fleet will fire on you," Hughes said into the wireless. Then the reply came through the speakers.

"_This is the Battlestar _Galactica_ to the ship claiming to be the _Universia_. Please respond."_ The whole CIC shut up.

"_Galactica?_ How can that be, the rest of the fleet was destroyed and she was being decommissioned," Lauren said with disbelief.

"Sir, the ID codes are authentic," Simpson called out.

Eoin fingered his phone, and seemed to hold to his head gingerly, like it would explode any second. He finally spoke.

"Adama? Is that you?" he asked.

"_Admiral Lundy… It's a pleasure to hear your voice."_

"You too commander… This is a miracle. It would be another miracle if you could identify that planet we crashed into."

"_That planet is Kobol."_

Every collective jaw in the fleet dropped.

**Cylon Resurrection ship**

****Cavil awoke in a tank full of goo.

"Cavil, you failed. Luckily for you and your crew you were in range of another resurrection ship," Crystal said, as if scolding a small child.

"Oh, and what would you have done?" the one snapped.

"I have a plan, but you're not going to like it..."

**DUN DUN. Cliffhanger!**

**I'm sorry for a late update, but I was in Florida and then Barbados and then New York, AND at a wedding…**

**So they find the bucket, just like Lauren's dream said they would…. BUM BUM BUM.**

**So, please review, and favourite! I am also considering renaming the story 'Phoenix', so tell me what you think in a review. It symbolises Universia's rebirth.**

**Til next time, **

**EF.**


	6. Intombed

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

**CHAPTER SIX**

"Fools go where angels fear to tread,"—Anon

_Previously…_

"_This planet is Kobol."_

_XXX_

_"__Sola, this is Clam. The target is some kind of probe."_

_"__This is Sola-Actual, what do you mean?"_

_"It's a probe commander. That's all I can say."_

_"__Bring it aboard."_

_"Yes sir, right away. CAG out."_

_XXX_

_"Earth? As in__the__Earth? The thirteenth colony?" he asked with amazement. As a child he had always been fascinated by the thirteenth colony and the stories surrounding it._

_"Well, if it__is__from Earth, it's a long way from home," Aidan stated._

_"How so?" Lauren asked, not tanking her eyes of the words._

_"When plotting our course I noticed the nearest main sequence A, G, F or K class star is back at that ocean moon. Earth certainly wasn't there. The nearest A, G, F or K is almost two hundred light years from here. We're over one nine hundred light years from the Colonies. We've been out here for months, jumping about two dozen times a day_.

_XXX_

**Cylon Fleet**

Cavil awoke in a resurrection tank, covered in bubbly, scummy goo. He looked around, and saw a six.

"Crystal…" he rasped. The six glared at him.

"Cavil you moron! You failed quite miserably!" Crystal shouted. She glared daggers at the older cylon.

"I would like to remind that they have a frakking WARSTAR!" Cavil yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Anyway, I have a plan. But you're not going to like it…"

Ten minutes later one cylon from each model sat around a large black table. Cavil sat at the head of the table, idly picking at some slime in his hair. He wore his trademark black sweater.

"So Crystal, the plan please?" The six handed around recon photographs.

"This is the pulsar PS 12687236+A. It is a relatively large pulsar that shares an orbit with a huge space anomaly. The common theory is that the anomaly is some sort of bridge in space- a wormhole if you will. We never detected this anomaly from the colonies due to poor line of sight. But out here our telescopes can detect it. Now Lundy is no doubt going to see it and probably investigate it. That is when we lure them into a trap. Fifty basestars will orbit the pulsar with their escorts, and the command ships with twenty escorting basestars," Crystal stated. Cavil was furious.

"SEVENTY basestars plus escorts? How many command ships?" he raged. Crystal stood her ground.

"Six."

"Six? We only have ten! Not to mention we only have one hundred and thirty basestars!"

"The problem is, seventy basestars don't ensure us winning. Which is why we position the Colony…"

"The frakking Colony?" What for?!" Cavil fumed. Six glared at him and continued.

"We need to ensure victory… We need to do all it takes. So we position the Colony over the anomaly. We set a trap like a false freight convoy to lure Lundy to the Pulsar and then the basestars will herd them towards the Colony. The Colony will then use superior firepower to blow Lundy and his fleet up."

Just then, a Doral ran in.

"James says the Basestar over Kobol has been destroyed. He is on the surface with his escort and some freighters. He has plenty of ground forces in those freighters but he is saying that _Galactica_ has met with Lundy over Kobol," he informed the other Cylons.

Crystal nodded. "They have another ship, so this is why we should use my plan," she said. The other models nodded their agreement. Cavil was shaking.

"You were right about one thing sister… I don't like this plan," he said resignedly.

**Kobol**

"_Galactica Raptor Zero-Six-Niner, you are clear for landing. Welcome aboard Commander Adama," Universia_'s LSO called out as the _Raptor_ touched down on the elevator pad.

The crew were lined up and they stood to attention when the _Raptor_ was towed into the hanger deck. Eoin, Lauren and Aidan stood at the front of their crew, watching as the angular craft was brought to a stop.

Then the hatch hissed open and two marines appeared. They walked onto the ship's winglet while observing for any kind of danger. Next was a pilot, who jumped won beside the marines, his boots making a _thud_ upon landing. An older man was next, wearing the rank insignia of Colonel. He looked gruff and surly but seemed to be sober. He jumped down facing Lauren, who was his rank equal.

Then a short man with an imposing aura about him jumped down. Wearing the rank insignia of Commander, Eoin knew exactly who this was. Commander William 'Bill' Adama. With his cratered face and questioning frown, he fit the image of an 'old salt' kind of officer. He saluted, and Eoin returned the salute crisply.

"Commander Adama," the Admiral said. Adama nodded.

"Admiral Lundy. It's a pleasure," he said. Eoin likewise nodded. "At ease!" he shouted, and his crew visibly relaxed.

"We have a lot to talk about commander," Eoin said. Adama nodded, noticing that the Admiral's crew seemed to be itching to join the few of _Galactica's_ crew members he had brought with him.

"Please, follow me," Eoin offered the commander. The two of them plus Aidan and Lauren walked towards Eoin's quarters, the entire hangar deck exploding with cheering behind them.

**Eoin's Quarters, Battlestar **_Universia_

They sat in Eoin's quarters as Adama told the tale of why he was at Kobol. He was there to correct a mistake, the mistake being holding a military coup against the civilian president Laura Rosin who was down on Kobol.

Eoin's quarters were quite spacious but also quite messy. The walls were made of polished walnut panelling. On the wall above his desk was a lapis lazuli gem, gold, and ruby encrusted symbol of a phoenix similar to _Galactica's_. (Only _Galactica's_ was a lot less high end) The polished walnut desk was piled with paperwork and a coffee machine and a toaster. The rather large bed was unmade and Eoin seemed to only sleep on one side of the king sized bed, as evidenced by the imprint. Eoin had paid for his quarters himself. A small photoframe sat on his desk, with the Admiral as a boy of six with his grandfather and his father.

"So, you want to go down to the planet to restore president Roslin?" Lauren asked. Adama and Tigh nodded.

"Adama, I'm sure you don't want a lecture for someone not even half your age, but the whole coup thing? Over one decision?" Eoin said.

"I don't really know what came over me, but I have to make things right," the commander replied. Eoin nodded.

"Well then, seems we have a ground operation on our hands. Do you have any ground forces commander?" Aidan asked. Adama shook his head.

"Nothing besides my Marines."

"Well then, you're in luck. Aidan get me a shuttle to the _Aegis Star_, and start to load up civilian freighters with ground forces. If you'll all follow me," Eoin said.

The colonials did not know that a cylon escort remained on the planet. Although the basestar over Kobol was destroyed a single modified _Liche_ made it through alongside some cylon frieghters. The cylons were busy hunting Roslin and her group through the forests of Kobol. And this _Liche_ belonged to James Cavil.

**One hour later**

**CIC, **_Bezerker _Cruiser _Aegis Star_

"Sir we are ready to enter atmosphere based on Commander Adama's idea of where the President is," Colonel Patrick Fay said. Eoin nodded. He, Lauren and Commander Adama where on the _Aegis Star_. _Bezerker _Cruisers like her were the largest Colonial ships capable of atmospheric flight.

The _Aegis Star_ and three _Gungnir_ escorts would go down to Kobol and provide fire support against Cylon ground forces while several civilian freighters would land and unload tanks and men. The civilians had their cargo moved to other ships. Although the civvies were reluctant at first because they thought the military was taking their resources, Eoin managed to win them over by promising we would return their supplies.

"Sir, our CAP from the _Sola_ is joining us now," the tactical officer called out. _Bezerker _cruisers lacked fighters so a squadron of _Vipers_ from the _Sola_ would go with the small attack fleet.

"Entering atmosphere."

With huge sonic booms the small fleet entered Kobol's atmoshphere. The ships started shaking with turbulence. With each ship traveling at about five thousand miles per hour, they were not an easy target.

"DRADIS contact! Six Cylon raiders, CBDR!" the DRADIS officer yelled. "Have the CAP intercept!" Eoin ordered. The Raiders flew straight in to the viper formation, and orange and blue tracers both opened up. Almost immediately two Cylon raiders fell out of the dogfight towards the surface trailing black smoke, and another exploded outright.

"Remaining Raiders are withdrawing sir." Eoin nodded. That was when a horde of Cylon SAMs opened up, with anti-aircraft missiles hitting the fleet. The larger ships were unaffected, but one of the smaller freighters trailed flames as it was hit in her engines. She fell towards the surface.

"I want the Vipers to hug close to us, we can't risk them getting shot down by SAMs," Eoin said.

"Sir we have spotted the Galleon fields. Freighters commencing landing," Fay called out.

**Galleon Fields**

The expansive Galleon fields were alight with activity as nine freighters touched down. Then the huge Predator battle tanks started rolling out.

The Predator was armed with a one hundred and five millimetre rifled main gun, along with two 7.62mm machine guns. With armour two inches thick, the Predator was a formidable foe.

The force consisted of sixteen Predators, eighty marines plus three LandRam command vehicles. A Raptor that had been docked with the _Aegis Star_ touched down also. Eoin, Lauren and Adama stepped out.

"So you say they are looking for a tomb that points the way to Earth?" Eoin asked Adama. The older man nodded.

"Yes. Chances are they'll be in a heavily wooded area, so the tanks will have to go first to clear a path."

Eoin hopped into one of the LandRams, and stuck his head out of the open top turret, which housed two fifty-cal machine guns. He looked down at the two officers.

"Lauren, I want you in the LandRam with me. Adama, you lead the marines," he ordered. The two nodded.

So then the vehicles started moving, with the Predators up front clearing a path through the forest.

It was a long journey, slow-going, especially in the hills. Thankfully it was not raining. After about three hours of continuous driving, the lead tank stopped.

"Sir, we got movement dead ahead," the tank's commander radioed to Eoin. The Admiral again got up into the turret and checked that the dual fifties were loaded.

"Identify!" He shouted. Adama and two marines went through the large bush blocking their view. They did not come out for a couple of minutes.

Adama came back out.

"We found them!" he said with a smile. The lead Predator cut through the bush, revealing a group of people. Eoin and Lauren got out of the LandRam and made their way over. Adama was hugging a young blonde woman, and then a young man with a slight resemblance to him. Then Adama hugged an older woman with chestnut hair.

"Good to see you Laura," he said. Laura. The President. Eoin and Lauren made their way over.

"Madame President," Eoin said. Roslin looked him strangely. "Who are you?" She asked. Eoin smiled warmly.

"Rear Admiral Eoin Lundy, Battlestar _Universia_. Our fleet survived the Holocaust and met with yours," he said proudly.

"There's more survivors? Thank the gods," Roslin said. She was overcome with happiness.

"We have a tomb to find Madame President," Adama said. Roslin nodded. That was when an olive-skinned woman wearing a prison jumpsuit made an appearance. Adama lost it, tackled her and started to throttle her.

Roslin was shouting, trying to get Adama of her. They finally pulled him off, and he lay on the ground panting.

"Adama, why did you-," Eoin began but Roslin cut him off.

"She's a Cylon, and she's helping us find the tomb," the President replied. Eoin nodded but immediately did not trust the Cylon.

**One hour later, Tomb of Athena, Kobol**

"This is it," the cylon said. They had stopped at a large cave that had a large stone blocking the entrance. Eoin and Adama both pushed, and pushed, and finally they got in. The cylon waited outside, and Eoin, Adama, Lauren, Roslin, Adama's son, Kara Thrace and Roslin's Aide Billy went in.

The tomb was dark, and there was lots of statures scattered about. Some were broken.

"These are the symbols of the colonies!" Lauren said.

"Caprica the goat… Leonis the Lion…" Roslin muttered.

"This pretty lady could be Virgon," Billy said.

"Sagitarion- The Archer!" Thrace called.

"He's missing something," Adama said, gesturing to the statue's empty bow. Thrace slowly inched closer, holding the arrow from the museum in Delphi. She put it in the bow.

And then the cave sealed itself, and all was dark.

"What the FRAK?" Adama's son shouted. Then there was a hiss, like an automatic door opening. Then blue floor-level lighting came , revealing a corridor that had definitely not been there before.

"I think we go that way," Adama said.

"Damn thing couldn't come with tourist info?" Thrace commented wryly.

"Too easy," Lauren muttered. The group walked through the dark corridor, their faces illuminated in blue light.

Then they came to a brightly lit room, where the walls had floor-to-ceiling lights. In the centre of the room was some kind of table with a slight resemblance to a Battlestar tactical table, only much longer.

As they walked up to the table, it flickered, projecting images of planets which floated above the table.

"A hologram?" Lauren asked. Adama nodded.

"Apparently so," the commander said. The table appeared to show a system with four rocky planets and four gas giants. At the edge of the system there was a red dwarf star. They all orbited an yellow-orange star.

Three of the inner planets were blue and green, like Caprica. The one in the middle had rings.

"One of those is Earth," Roslin gasped. A timer appeared, showing that this was sixty-seven million years ago.

A huge meteor pounded the outermost blue planet. Only a dry, dusty red world was left. The timer then switched to sixty-six million years ago.

The innermost blue planet started to dry up. It became cloudy and the clouds obscured the view of the surface. One blue planet- the ringed one- was left.

Now it was sixty-five million years ago. The remaining blue planet's rings de-stabilized, and fell to the planet, pounding it with small meteors, although one particle large moonlet impacted the planet with a huge explosion.

But the planet survived.

"That one is Earth," Eoin said breathlessly. There was a hiss and another door slid open, revealing an unlit corridor.

"Well Madame President, lead the way," Adama said. The group went through the corridor in complete darkness.

"Am I standing on grass now?" Thrace asked. "This keeps getting more and more odd," Eoin muttered to himself.

Just then they saw a night sky. Twelve huge stones with jewels seemingly arranged at random surrounded them. They were standing in a field of tall grass.

"Look, those were the patterns on the original flags of the colonies," Roslin stated, pointing to the jewels.

"And the people of Earth looked up, and saw their twelve brothers and sisters looking back at them… Don't you see… We're standing on it. This is Earth," Thrace said.

"Holy shit," Eoin murmured.

"No, but this wouldn't work as a map. We could spend years looking for one particular star pattern," Adama's son said shaking his head.

"There, in Sagittarius!," Eoin shouted, pointing at a pink and gray nebula.

"It's the Lagoon nebula," Adama's son said. They all looked in awe at the nebula, which observed them like a beacon. It beckoned them to come near.

"M8 Astral Body… It's a long way from here," Adama stated.

"It's a roadsign, a marker," Lauren said, speaking for the first time in a while. She seemed uncomfortable around Thrace.

"Anyone got a camera?" Eoin asked. To his surprise, Thrace had a camera. She photographed the stones, the stars and the nebula.

"How we get out of here?" Billy asked. They decided to go back the way they came, and ened up in the statue room again, which was still sealed.

Adama rapped on the door boulder. They heard a voice on the other side.

"We're gonna blow it sir!" they heard one of the marines on the other side shout. The occupants of the tomb got down away from the boulder, which blew apart, and daylight came streaming in.

"It was amazing in there," Eoin said to himself. They heard a drone, and then three Raiders flew overhead.

"Cylons know where we are," Adama said. Eoin nodded.

"Get ready to move out everyone," he said, jumping up into the Landram's turret once more. A hail of bullets came out of the woods near the tomb, cutting down two marines easily. Adama dragged the president behind one of the tanks.

From his position in the turret, Eoin snarled.

"Come get some, bastards!" he shouted, as he opened up with the twin fifties, firing huge bullets into the woods. A squad of centurions came out of the forest. The marines returned fire, and Eoin kept on firing the fifties. The bullets from the Heavy Machine Guns devastated the centurion squad, turning them into punctured piles of debris and charred metal.

The gunfire stopped, as all the centurions had been scrapped. Eoin glanced at his hand, which were still holding the trigger for the twin machine guns.

"I frakking love these things," he shouted, just as a Raider made a pass while firing a missile at the Landram, which flipped over in a ball of flame.

**Is Eoin dead?**

**Thanks for reading as always, be safe out there.**


	7. Parting

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

**PARTING**

"_You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"—Wayne Gretzky_

_Previously…_

"_This planet is Kobol."_

_XXX_

_"Come get some, bastards!" he shouted, as he opened up with the twin fifties, firing huge bullets into the woods. A squad of centurions came out of the forest. The marines returned fire, and Eoin kept on firing the fifties. The bullets from the Heavy Machine Guns devastated the centurion squad, turning them into punctured piles of debris and charred metal._

_The gunfire stopped, as all the centurions had been scrapped. Eoin glanced at his hand, which were still holding the trigger for the twin machine guns._

_"I frakking love these things," he shouted, just as a Raider made a pass while firing a missile at the Landram, which flipped over in a ball of flame._

_XXX_

**Aeleous Continent, Kobol- 20km from the City of Gods**

Lauren's first instinct was to sprint to the Landram, which was now burning like a bonfire, with some of the 12.7mm rounds from the HMGs popping off. As she ran towards the vehicle, the flares in the Landram's emergency kit went off, igniting severed fuel lines. She reached the command vehicle, she saw the turret the admiral had been in.

"Come on! Help!" She ordered, and one of the Predator tanks reversed into the Landram, which was belching smoke from a huge hole where the missile impacted it. The vehicle tipped back upright.

A coughing came to her ears, as she climbed up the side of the vehicle. She saw the Admiral, tucked into the turret well, which had protected him from getting crushed under the vehicle.

"Thanks," he murmured as he climbed out of the turret well, with a large cut down the side of his face. She helped him down onto the ground.

"Alright… The cylons gave us a good surprise there, but we gave 'em a smack up the face. They'll be back with a band-aid and ready to fight us again. Lauren, I need you to take a five man recon team and search the forest those toasters came out of. Adama, seal up that tomb and someone get the arrow out of it. Move!" he ordered.

Eoin headed over to the marine wireless operator.

"That thing working?" he asked the young soldier, who nodded. The admiral picked up the wireless handset.

"_Aegis Star, Aegis Star_, we're gonna need heavy fire support," he said. The radio crackled into life.

"_Roger sir. Be advised, recon birds spotted a cylon escort in a large field about thirty clicks south from here. I'm guessing it's commanding the cylon ground forces down there."_

"Acknowledged. Lundy out."

Meanwhile Colonel Patience was heading into the forest, past the remains of the first wave of centurions. Her five man marine squad followed her, rifles ready.

After about ten minutes, they hadn't found anymore cylons. That changed, when a hail of bullets struck down two of her marines. The other three fired blindly into the brush, but their retaliation was rewarded with the three being cut down almost simultaneously. The colonel now found herself alone with just her rifle, and five corpses.

She looked around, now that the hail of gunfire had stopped. She gripped her rifle tighter. Then she heard crashing metal footsteps behind her. She spun around and saw the blow connect with her head.

Then everything went dark.

**Back at Colonial convoy**

"Sir, call coming through on the wireless," the wireless operator said to Eoin.

"Who from?"

"Unsure sir. Says it is urgent."

"Okay." He raised the handset to his face. "Who is this and what do you want?" The person on the other end chuckled.

"_I have your executive officer, Admiral. If you look up now, you'll see the heavy raider that's taking her to my ship."_

"Cylon frakker. I will hunt you down you stupid synthetic bastard!"

"_So sure? I'm leaving you a little parting gift."_

The line went dead, and Eoin shouted.

"TAKE COVER!"

A hail of bullets one again came out of the forest, pinning the marines down. Once again, Adama pulled the president behind one of the tanks.

Eoin was quite angry now. The girl he loved was being taken, and would no doubt be tortured in the most gruesome ways aboard a basestar somewhere far from here.

In rage, he noticed that one of the fifty-cal machinge guns from his ill-fated Landram had blown off and had landed not o far from him. He picked up the gun by the barrel.

And nearly screamed when it was still hot from its earlier use. He felt the skin on his hand beginning to blister and dry out. He bit his lip to try and stem the pain, but to no avail. Gritting his teeth, he picked up the gun the proper way and saw that it still had the majority of its two-hundred and fifty round ammo case.

With tremendous effort, he grunted as he picked up the heavy weapon which had never been designed to be man portable. His arms already ached from holding the weapon.

All around him, marines fought and perished, several bloody bodies dotted about. As he watched, a marine fired an anti-tank rocket at a group of centurions, blowing them apart, their limbs flying everywhere. The Predator tanks raked the cylons with 7.62mm machine gunfire, while the marines formed a firing line. Eoin opened up with the machine gun, the rounds impacting a centurion, which fell in a crumpled heap.

The recoil immediate hurt his aching arms, but he continued to fire, the heavy rounds trashing the centurions. The marines started to push the cylons back through the forest. That was when they heard a drone, and saw the promised Heavy Raider take off, with Lauren aboard.

There was a massive flash, and the cylon escort jumped into view, hanging over the battlefield. The heavy raider swooped towards the ship, and a small landing bay opened up to admit the heavy raider.

"NO!" the admiral yelled, and threw the machine gun to the ground.

The wireless operator was already on the wireless to the _Aegis Star_, which came into view from out of a cloud formation. She opened up with her flak guns, raking the escort in an effort to disable it. The high explosive shells impacted of the hull, creating pockmarks and craters. The cruiser poured more and more flak rounds into the escort, now aiming at the cylon ship's engines.

But it was too late, as the ship jumped away. The shockwave of the jump knocked many of the marines over as they mopped up the remaining centurions. The admiral fell to his knees, with a single tear rolling down his face.

He turned to the wireless operator.

"Inform the _Aegis Star_ and the freighter group we need pickup…" he whispered.

**One hour later, Admiral's quarters - Battlestar **_Universia_

Eoin sat on his bed, dejected. What were the cylons doing to Lauren? Torture? Mutilation? He didn't want to think about it. He sat up and walked over to his desk.

He began to write, with great difficulty due to his burnt (but bandaged) hand.

_I lost her. It's that simple…_

_I'm at a crossroads. Should I endanger the entire fleet just to rescue one person? Or just keep on going?_

_You know, I really am too young. People my age should be paying off student loans or getting jobs, not commanding a fleet. I was promoted to act as a recruiting poster figure… Not because I had any skill._

_I'm not cut out for this, even Aidan knows it. _

_Even if I go to rescue her, I don't know where she is. When you weigh the amount of aviation fuel that will have to be expended just to find her, let alone rescue her, it doesn't seem beneficial to the fleet._

_One person for the greater good. I should have been a Marine Biologist. I shouldn't sent her into that forest. At least if I was a marine biologist back on the colonies, I would be dead and wouldn't have to put up with any of this bullshit I'm not prepared for…_

_Maybe I should die._

With that, the admiral set his pen down and eyed his handgun. He picked it up and fingered the safety off. Glancing at the writing stamped onto the body of the weapon, he read aloud.

"Whirlwind Firearms Mk67, calibre .357," he muttered to himself, as he looked the gun over. He grasped the weapon's grip tighter.

He then began to open his mouth and he slid the gun in. All the years of stress ever since he joined the colonial military came crashing down on him like a freight train. He fingered the weapon's trigger, and his finger started to tighten around it. He closed his syes.

_Do you vow to uphold and defend the articles of colonisation?_

_I do._

"I wish I hadn't ever joined this stupid outfit," he murmured. For the greater good of the fleet, he had to die. He would lead them to disaster. He wasn't an admiral.

Now.

"You put that frakking thing down!" Aidan shouted as he entered the room. The admiral glanced up at him.

"You're gonna kill yourself over a woman?!"

Eoin slid the gun out of his mouth, and his face morphed into an angry scowl.

"It's not over just her you stupid frakker! I can't take command! I don't want to! I only joined the outfit just to get a load of cash because I'd be promoted quickly! I don't trust myself to do what's right for these people…" The admiral confessed.

Aidan punched the admiral as hard as he could across the face. The younger man retaliated with a viscous uppercut which sent Aidan sprawling onto the deck. The commander quickly recovered and the two slugged it out for a further minute before both of them were bruised and panting.

"You're fulla shit!" Aidan snapped. The Admiral spat blood. The two circled each other. Aidan lashed out again, the Admiral dodging. Eoin attempted to wind his so-called friend with a powerful kick, which the commander blocked. He grabbed Eoin's leg, and flung him against the wall. Eoin yelled.

Panting and clutching his left arm, he managed to get onto his feet, albeit drunkenly.

"Leave," the Admiral spat weakly, before diving for his pistol, which had been lying on the table the whole time. Aidan sprinted at his superior officer, but not before Eoin squeezed two shots off, one impacting the deck and the other nicking Aidan's shoulder.

The commander's charge was not stopped however, and he tackled the admiral into the wall, the pistol flying from his hand. Aidan was about to kill the Admiral.

"Go on… Do it… friend…" He was begging, pleading. Aidan flung him to the deck.

"I'm not gonna give you what you want, sir," he replied. The admiral lay on the deck bleeding and panting.

Aidan reached for the medic kit that was underneath Eoin's bed. Eoin looked on in confusion.

"What? Why… are you… getting that?" he asked before coughing blood all over his uniform. Aidan gave one of his classic smirks.

"Because you're my friend dumbass… You were just overstressed, and grieving…"

"Grieving… She's…not dead…yet."

"Of course. You'll be pleased to know I found your family!"

"What?" the admiral asked weakly while his friend bandaged his head.

"Do you know where they were before the attacks?" Aidan asked, as he assembled the dismantled crutch found in the medkit.

"On a cruise liner… the _Zephyr_…" The admiral said, coughing more blood again. Aidan felt his friend's chest, causing Eoin to wince in pain.

"I think I busted your ribs," Aidan said apologetically. Eoin weakly nodded. The admiral arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why are you helping me? I…shot you and attacked you…"

"Because you had a breakdown. Everyone has them, some worse than others. You did nothing wrong. And that gunshot would hurts like a bitch, just so you know."

Eoin smiled painfully.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. Aidan nodded.

"About your family… The _Zephyr_ is part of Commander Adama's civilian fleet," Aidan said. Eoin's eyes widened.

"Can you bring them… to me?"

"You'll be in sickbay for a while now with those busted ribs. But I'll have them brought to you as soon as possible… There, that should be the bandages in place," Aidan replied. Eoin nodded.

"Here, I'll get you up…" Aidan said as he helped his friend up. The admiral grunted. Getting up hurt like a bitch, and his chest felt like it was burning.

"We're gonna find her…right?" Eoin asked earnestly, like a child who wanted a lost toy back. Aidan nodded, more trying to convince himself than his friend. Eoin smiled. Aidan slid the crutch under the admiral's arm, and he painfully walked one step forward, with Aidan supporting him.

"I still think I…sent her to…her fate… I mean, I sent her on…that recon mission," Eoin spluttered. Aidan shook his head.

"Not your fault man," the commander told his friend, as the two walked to sickbay.

**Zephyr, bridge**

"Captain, call coming through from the Battlestar _Universia_. They request the presence of the Lundy family aboard the vessel and have sent a shuttle," the ship's XO said. The young auburn haired captain nodded and reached for her intercom mouthspeaker.

**Zephyr, Zeus Restaurant**

"_All crew members, this is Captain Harbinson. Can the Lundy family please head to port airlock C for immediate departure. Thank you."_

Cormac Lundy got up from his table, with his daughter Megan and wife Martina, and his mother in law Mary.

"I guess we gotta go," he said to his family members. Martina shook her head.

"Why aren't they telling us where we going?" she asked. Cormac shrugged.

"We better go. We don't want to annoy the brass," he smirked. The family headed out and followed the signs until they got to the airlock, where a shuttle was waiting. The entire family's collective jaw dropped when they saw the ID code on the side of the shuttle.

_BS UNIVERSIA 6740827_

"_Universia_…Eoin is alive?" Martina gasped.Mary nodded.

"Apparently so…" she said.

They climbed aboard the shuttle, which took them to the missing child's ship. As they approached the ship, they looked out the shuttle windows. Cormac recognized the ship, even if she looked a bit different from the last time he had seen her.

"It's _Universia_ alright. But she's been modified into a _Valkyrie-S_ battlestar," he told the other family members. The shuttle entered the upper port flight pod, and landed on the elevator pad, which started to lower the small ship into the battlestar's cavernous hangar decks.

**Sickbay**

Eoin lay in bed. His chest was bandaged and he was feeling a bit better. He could leave sickbay in a couple of days, Doctor Barnes told him.

Aidan came in, followed by some familiar faces. Eoin's still pained face lit up in a smile, as he saw the people he had thought were dead.

"Mom…Dad…Megan… Granny… This means so much!" he said, a tear running down his face as he gently hugged each family member in turn, taking care not to put pressure on his ribs. After the hugs, and before talking to any of his family members, he turned to Aidan.

"Aidan, inform Evans that I'm incapacitated, and that I have ordered you to jump the fleet to the next set of coordinates. Start heading for the M8 Astral body," the admiral said. Aidan saluted and walked off, leaving the family to their fifth member.

**CIC, BS **_Universia_

Aidan walked into the CIC.

"Atten-SHUN!" he yelled, and the command staff immediately stood to attention.

"At ease… Now, you may or may not have heard, but Colonel Patience has been captured by the cylons, and the admiral is incapacitated again. I'll be in command for a few days, then you'll have the admiral back. He is going to figure out a way to rescue colonel Patience, but we may need a new XO if the worst comes to the worse. Now, commence jump prep, we're leaving."

The crew came back to life and immediately set about their tasks.

"Spinning up FTLs one and two…"

"Inputting coordinates…"

"Fleet reports ready to jump sir."

"Jump."

In a huge flash of light, the ragtag fugitive fleet performed another jump, another jump in an long saga of simply fleeing the enemy. But the fleet would survive, at least for the time being. Being the last members of a race had really brought different types of people together. Bonds that wouldn't have been formed before had been created, and most important of all, people still knew what is was like to be human.

And as long as they had that, as long as they remembered how to keep true to themselves, the Cylons would have a very hard time trying to stamp out the last remnants of humanity, however futile their resistance may be, they would never just lay down and die.

The cylons had their collective boot on the throat of humanity. They just failed to stamp down hard enough on her. And they would regret that mistake for eternity.

And no matter how many losses they had, from a Battlestar named _Warhawk_ to a Colonel named Lauren, they would always survive.

As long as they held on to even a tiny, fragile bit of humanity.

That was what set humanity apart from it's creations.

**Cylon **_Hel- _**class command ship- twenty light-years from Kobol**

Lauren awoke in a prison cell. It was dark in the cell, lighting provided only by a series of small speckled lights dotted about the organic looking walls of the ship.

She couldn't move. She was also wearing different clothing. Looking down, she found she was just wearing a pair of leather panties and her topless chest was covered by a huge metal brace which kept her up against the wall.

"What am I in, a bondage movie?" she joked to herself, while struggling a bit. It was no good; the brace was tight. The door opened and a shadowy figure entered.

"Why hello there, I'm three," an accented female voice came from the figure. She stepped into the light, revealing her to be a human in a white blouse and skirt with brownish-blond hair.

"And I'm here to have some girl talk," she added, producing a small, sharp surgical knife. She then held the knife over Lauren's exposed stomach and midriff.

"Get the frak away from me, toaster bitch!" the Colonel shouted, but Three was undaunted. She started to cut along Lauren's stomach, drawing blood easily. The XO moaned in pain.

"You're gonna talk. You're gonna tell us where all your buddies are. Alright?" she said as she pressed the knife in with more force.

**I had quite a bit of the dreaded block this chapter, so apologies for lateness.**

**EF**

**Review please, or Three will get you next.**


	8. Sacrifice

**BATTLESTAR UNIVERSIA**

**CHAPTER 8: SACRIFICE**

**Author's note: I strongly urge you to go back and read the first and second chapters again, as I've added a lot more stuff. Particularly the Starfire missile, which is discussed in the first chapter. **

"I failed my way to success"—Thomas Edision

_Previously…_

"_This planet is Kobol."_

_XXX_

_"Come get some, bastards!" he shouted, as he opened up with the twin fifties, firing huge bullets into the woods. A squad of centurions came out of the forest. The marines returned fire, and Eoin kept on firing the fifties. The bullets from the Heavy Machine Guns devastated the centurion squad, turning them into punctured piles of debris and charred metal._

_The gunfire stopped, as all the centurions had been scrapped. Eoin glanced at his hand, which were still holding the trigger for the twin machine guns._

_"I frakking love these things," he shouted, just as a Raider made a pass while firing a missile at the Landram, which flipped over in a ball of flame._

_XXX_

**Colonial fleet, in orbit around red supergiant Tenacity, performing search pattern delta. Target: Major Lauren Patience. **

**Third orbital, rocky planet Tenacity-3, L5 point**

**Battlestar Universia, CIC**

It had been two days since Major Patience had been abducted back on Kobol. The colonial fleet had since left the planet, starting a search for her, as per Admiral Lundy's orders. The Admiral himself stood in the CIC, looking up at the search and rescue ships on the DRADIS.

An ensign broke him from his thoughts.

"Sir, _Sola_ reports the fourth planet and orbital have been searched, nothing has been found. She is moving with her group into the nearby asteroid belt," the ensign stated. The Admiral merely nodded. He hobbled over to the CIC coffee machine and poured himself a mug. Taking a long drink, he grimaced.

"Tastes like grit," he mumbled, and XO Simpson smiled. "We're getting a small shipment of fresh coffee from the botanical cruiser later sir," he reported. Eoin nodded. He absently rubbed his hands over his two broken ribs. He shouldn't have walked out of sickbay, but he needed to coordinate the search.

"SAR flight twenty-seven, what is your status?" he heard Gladstone say into his wireless over at the flight control station.

"_This is SAR flight twenty-seven, negative on sweep, and we are bingo fuel. Request tanker bird."_

"Roger that. Tanker _Hawk_ is enroute. Drink up."

Eoin was about to head round to the DRADIS console again, when Hughes called him over.

"Sir? I have Admiral Evans on the line, he is requesting your presence aboard the _Colossus_. Shall I have Gladstone prepare a shuttle?"

_Evans. Why now? I don't think I've even spoken to him, he seems quite content for me to lead the fleet by myself. I wonder what he wants?_

"Thank you mister Hughes. Please inform flight control that I need a shuttle."

With that, the Admiral hobbled out of the CIC, grabbing his crutches which he left by the door.

**Battlestar **_Sola_, **Asteroid belt, search pattern delta.**

"Anything on the DRADIS?" Aidan grunted. The DRADIS officer shook her head. "Nothing sir, but the asteroids are really hindering our chances of finding something." Aidan nodded.

"With all this crap screwing up the DRADIS we aren't going to find shit. Activate the bow mining system and clear us a path."

Near the bottom of the Battlestar's 'alligator head', a large hull panel slid away, and a large single-barrelled cannon extended out of the hull. The cannon aimed at a large hunk of rock, and then fired. The five ton mining charge impacted on the face of the asteroid, blowing it apart into many smaller pieces which _Sola_ simply ploughed through. The cannon fired again, devastating another rock.

"Now we're getting somewhere, but we should rely on the mark one eyeball now," Aidan said as the optical viewscreen slid up, out of the tactical table. The screen was linked with a bow mounted camera, and while not the best in picture quality, was more than enough to spot a starship.

As Aidan watched, the mining cannon fired again, this time cleaving through a particularly large asteroid covered in dry ice. The asteroid shattered, and a cloud of carbon dioxide flew into space. However, one thing was left behind. A cube, about two hundred metres long and made of a dark gray metal.

"What the frak?" Aidan asked himself.

**Warstar **_Colossus_**, Admiral Mark Evans commanding, in formation with **_Universia_

Eoin walked briskly into Evans' quarters, the marine guard shutting the hatch behind him. He looked around, noting that the warstar had a much larger commander's quarters- about half again as big as his own. He shrugged it off.

"Admiral?" he called out, and Evans walked out from the bathroom area of his quarters. He smiled as he dried his hands with a small towel.

"Please, call me Mark, we're both admirals," he said, setting the towel down and opening a small cabinet, taking out a bottle of ambrosia.

"That may be sir but I'd like to defer to you in the grounds of experience," Eoin replied, seizing the chance to have someone else share his workload.

"If you say so Admiral," Evans grunted, pouring two glasses and not waiting to see if his comrade actually wanted a drink. The two sat down and Eoin took a long drink from his glass.

"Thank you Admiral, now was there a reason you wished to speak with me?" the younger Admiral asked. Evans scratched his stubble.

"Yes there was, and it concerns the safety of the fleet," he replied, setting the glass down on the table.

"Do you remember those older ships we took from Gauntlet station?" he asked. Eoin nodded, remembering the six _Scorpion_ battlestars and the eight _Jotunn_ class heavy escorts that they had taken from the mothball fleet.

"Yes I remember sir, although we've only trained enough crew for one of the battlestars and two of the escorts," he replied, remembering that the civilians were being very skittish when it came to recruitments.

"I think that since we cannot train crews for them, we should strip them and arm the civilian ships using their weapons," Evans said. Eoin nodded.

"What ships did you have in mind?"

"I was thinking that heavy railguns could be fitted to the _Cryosis_, _Cloud 9_, _Monarch_, _Gemini, Prometheus, Majahual, Daru Mozu, Zephyr _and the botanical cruisers. While they would lack the armour of a true warship, it would be easier for us to defend the civvies, or in case a ship gets separated," the Admiral continued. Eoin saw a problem.

"Some of the more superstitious captains may refuse if they think we're gonna use them as cannon fodder," he said. Evans nodded.

"I don't want to have to deploy the marines, that would destabilize quickly. We'll get the president to assure them that the big bad military won't use them as 'poor bloody infantry'".

Evans' wireless buzzed. "Excuse me," he said while reaching for the handset.

"Evans."

"_CIC here sir. Important message for you and Admiral Lundy,"_ the XO reported. Evans switched the wireless to speaker mode. _"Transferring," _the XO said.

"_Admirals, this is Commander Devlin. We…uh found something while picking through the asteroid belt," _Aidan said of the speakers, his voice distorted by the wireless.

"What did you find Commander?" Evans asked. There was a pause.

"_Some kind of… cube. It was inside one of the asteroids we blew apart. It's two hundred by two hundred meters in size sir, and made of unknown metal."_

Evans and Eoin thought about this. "You know, I was always a fan of the sci-fi movies where humans found relics of another race," Eoin said. Evans raised an eyebrow.

"You don't think this is alien, do you?" Eoin earnestly nodded.

"What else could it be? I'm more worried about the fact that there _is_ intelligent life out there. I mean, we always guessed, but nothing was ever confirmed," Eoin continued. Evans nodded slowly.

"The civvies will complexly freak over this. Especially the Sagittaron survivors, who are very fond of the fact that the only intelligent life in the galaxy is us _chosen_ humans," he said with a hint of contempt in his voice.

"You should get back to your ship Admiral, and go have a look at that artefact. I'll bring the _Colossus _around into sector three of the asteroid belt and we'll continue the search there," Evans continued.

"Thank you Admiral. Finding the Colonel is important because of the information she has," Eoin said, knowing the _real_ reason he had organised the search. Evans give him a look of slight disbelief, as if he knew the real reason.

"Good hunting," was all he said, with a crisp salute.

XXX

"Battlestar _Sola_, this is _Universia_, we are taking up position thirty klicks from the artifact," Eoin said into his wireless.

"_Roger that, this is _Sola-_actual_ , _we are holding positon twenty klicks from the artifact,"_ Aidan's voice buzzed through the wireless.

With a blast from her manoeuvring thrusters, _Universia_ slowly flew into position, thirty kilometres from the relic.

"Sir, scanners are showing that the relic is made of an unknown material we have never accounted for. There is a small but unusual energy signature coming from the centre of the artifact," XO Simpson said. The Admiral nodded, drinking another mug of low quality coffee. He tried not to wretch as he took a large gulp.

"I swear it gets worse every time I drink it," the admiral said through a grimace, as he looked up at the DRADIS screen.

"Fire a standard HE slug from one of the main guns at the relic," the Admiral ordered. XO Simpson raised an eyebrow.

"You heard me. I want to know how tough this metal is."

_Universia_ aligned herself with the artifact, and with a flash of light, a standard one ton slug was fired from one of the main bow guns. The round exploded against the hull of the artifact. #

"The round did not penetrate the hull sir but it seems we inflicted a moderate amount of damage on the hull of the artifact. The artifact remains inactive," XO Simpson called out.

_If we run into these aliens, and it goes to hell, at least we know we can hurt them._

"Alright, now fire a concentrated DRADIS pulse at the artifact. Maybe we can see inside it." Simpson nodded and sat down at his console. Hitting a few buttons, he waited as the pulse was directed at the artifact. Thirty seconds later, nothing had happened.

"Sir, we've got no response, it's like that thing is blocking DRADIS sweeps—wait!" Simpson's sudden yell startled half of the CIC crew.

"Report!"

"See for yourself sir," Simpson said. Eoin looked down at the optical viewscreen. The cube was lighting up.

Lights appeared in intricate lines that seemed to be carvings, brilliant blue lights that were a sharp contrast to the dark grey of the metal.

Finally, the lights died, and then the cube's walls jettisoned from the cube, floating slowly away. What was left behind was clear. Gun turrets.

The turrets were each thirty-five meters long, and made of the same grey metal. They floated and tumbled through space. A weapons cache.

"Sir I suggest that we salvage those turrets. They don't seem to be railguns, and it could give us an edge over the cylons," Simpson suggested. Eoin nodded. "Get the _Cradle_ on the line and tell them to have salvage teams standing by to recover those guns. I also want those metal plates salvaged as well. I want the best engineers to find a way to make this technology work with our own," he ordered. As the crew scurried about to carry out the orders, Simpson jogged over.

"Sir, the _Sola_ is reporting optical sightings of a cylon cruiser in the debris field with raider escorts. It's probably searching for us," he said. Eoin nodded.

"Sound action stations and ready the weapons. I want the fleet regrouped on the double and ready to jump," the admiral ordered. The fleet was spread thin due to the search, and they didn't know if there were more cylon ships about. The klaxon began to wail as the cylon cruiser got a visual on the two battlestars.

"_Emergency…Set condition one throughout the ship… this is not a drill. Cylon cruiser inbound. All fleet ships rendezvous and prepare for jump. Repeat…" _

"The raiders are breaking formation and charging us sir," Simpson said. Eoin nodded.

"Sir, shall I scramble the fighters?" Gladstone asked. Eoin shook his head.

"It's only about fifty raiders, and it'll take time to recover the fighters," Eoin replied. The DRADIS screen showed a swarm designated ENEMY FIGHTER SQUADRON and a larger contact indicating the cruiser.

"Defensive batteries, open fire!"

The flak batteries of _Universia_ and _Sola_ pulsed, sending a horde of deadly flak rounds into the raider squadron, decimating their ranks instantly. Within a second, three quarters of the squadron had blown apart. The flak rounds destroyed smaller asteroids, spinning chunks of rock further devastating the raider squadrons.

"Cruiser is spinning up!" Simpson shouted. "We can't let that ship get away and come back with a fleet!" Eoin shouted. Simpson nodded.

"Main batteries firing," the WEPCON officer called out, as the distant _thuds_ of the main guns firing became audible. The rounds from _Universia_'s heavy bow cannons tore into the smooth hull of the cruiser. The seven-hundred meter long cruiser was covered in massive explosions, and it only fired two missiles in response which did not even pass the flak barrier. The cruiser blew apart, tumbling debris mixing in with the debris field.

"Target destroyed sir, all remaining raiders have also been taken out," the WEPCON officer called out, the crew cheering mildly, with a smattering of applause.

Eoin allowed himself a grin, and then he picked up his handset and set it to fleetwide communications.

"This is the Admiral. I want the _Cradle_ to recover the relics we found, and all other ships prepare for our next jump," he barked into the handset.

"ETA to jump is fifteen minutes sir, judging by the amount of time needed to recover those weapons and then spin up the FTL drives," Simpson said. Eoin nodded.

XXX

"Fleet ready for jump sir!" Simpson called out. The fleet had regrouped and was preparing to jump to the next star system. With the alien weapons safe aboard the _Cradle_, the fleet could now continue its search elsewhere.

"Jump," Eoin ordered firmly.

With more than a hundred flashes of light, the fleet snapped out of existence in their previous star system, and appeared back into reality in the new star system, a protoplanetary system with an energetic young star.

"DRADIS scans show two-hundred planetary bodies, all of them are newborn planets," Simpson said as he checked the DRADIS readout. Young systems such as this which had just lost their protoplanetary dust clouds, which had become a swarm of planets. It was a spectacular sight to see so many planets in one system, although scientists knew it would never last. The protoplanets would destroy each other until only the larger planets were left- maybe only one surviving. The Cyrannus system had once been like this, although the four stars would have produced perhaps even a thousand protoplanets. The twelve Colonies had been the survivors of that maelstrom.

"Sir, DRADIS won't be that clear due to the amount of debris and planetary bodies in the system. We are—Wait!" Simpson's sudden yell brought Eoin to attention, as he was mesmerized by the beauty of the star system.

"DRADIS contacts! Three cruisers, one basestar and one large unknown ship roughly the size of the _Colossus_," Simpson called, as the klaxons began to shriek for the second time that hour.

"That new ship could be a problem. I'd guess they're in a standard search pattern. They're hunting us," Eoin said. Simpson pressed some buttons on his console and then turned to Eoin again.

"We have a visual on the cylon ship. Sir, I'm detecting massive amounts of chatter coming from that ship. I'd guess it was a command ship," Simpson stated. Eoin perked up.

_Maybe she's on that ship! _

"Order _Nova_ and _Oceania_ to disable that ship. _Universia_, _Sola_ and _Galactica_ will destroy the escorts," Eoin ordered, and Simpson relayed this information to the other fleet ships.

"Range is now four-fifty," Simpson called out from his console. Eoin nodded. "I want the main batteries to load two to one ratio of HE to AP, and ready the Starfire missiles, though I'll doubt we'll need them for just a single basestar and three cruisers," Eoin ordered. He watched as the range decreased to two-fifty.

"Sir, the alert vipers are away," Gladstone called out. Eoin picked up his handset.

"Open fire!" With that order, _Galactica_, _Universia_ and _Sola_ fired a swarm of slugs at the cylon warships. One cruiser was destroyed instantly, and the other cylon ships responded with raiders and missile fire. The colonial flak screen was thrown up as the humans fell into a well-practiced routine. A second cruiser blew apart courtesy of _Galactica_, and the basestar was peppered by slugs.

More missile fire flew at the colonials, with one missile exploding against the thick bow of the _Galactica_. _Universia_ then destroyed the final cruiser and the three colonial ships then focused their fire on the basestar. Slugs tore into her hide as explosions erupted from deep within the ship. It was too much for the ship to take and she blew apart, debris mixing in with wreckage from the cruisers.

The raiders were soon mopped up, and Eoin turned to Simpson. "Causalities?" he asked. Simpson looked at his console before responding.

"Three Vipers sir, one pilot ejected and is onboard a SAR bird, the other two are KIA," he said solemnly. Minor losses, but still losses of human lives.

Meanwhile the Cylon _Hel_ class command ship was finding herself in a battle against two battlestars and their escorts.

The _Hel_ was a two and a half kilometre long ship shaped roughly like a fish, with a body that tapered with two large engines. The slender form was armed with thirty triple missile launchers arranged in heavy turrets, and defended by thick armour. Despite this, it was not a frontline ship and was escorted at all times by at least three cruisers.

As the colonials approached, the _Hel_ opened up with missile fire, the attack catching the battlestars by surprise. Missiles exploded against the armour of _Nova_ and two of her escorts, before a flak screen could be brought up.

_Nova_'s powerful bow cannons tore into the thick hide of the command ship, as missile fire lanced out in an angry response. At the same time, _Oceania_ was firing at the command ship's engines, causing one of them to burst into flames. With the colonial flak screen firmly established, less and less missile fire got through, while the _Hel_ took more and more damage. The ship's second engine exploded in a huge tylium explosion as fuel lines were cut. The ship tried to spin up her quartet of FTL drives, but these were disabled by another volley from _Oceania_.

The ship's main reactor shut down to avoid fuel being fed into the reactor from ruptured fuel lines. With the main power systems offline, the _Hel's_ missile turrets ceased firing, and the ship's running lights flickered out and died.

"Sir, _Nova_ reports that the command ship has been disabled, with all weapons and hyperlight systems disabled," Simpson called to Eoin, and a round of applause went through the CIC. "I want a flight of Raptors ready to go now! We're boarding that ship, and I'm going to!" With that, he went down to the armoury.

_Universia_ **Raptors, fifteen minutes after the battle**

The six Raptors carrying marine assault teams flew towards the disabled cylon command ship, occasionally having to dodge some protoplanetary lumps of space-rock. They had identified a large tear in the ship's hull caused by a two-ton slug from _Nova_ as their landing site, since the hull was too thick to breach with plasma cutters and all of the hangars were sealed. In the lead Raptor, Eoin fiddled with his rifle as he slid his helmet on. Since the LZ was open to vacuum, the assault troops had been issued with flight suits until they reached a pressurized section of the ship.

Eoin looked down at his X-6 flechette rifle. A unique weapon, the X-6 fired flechette rounds designed to tear and puncture. The marines theorized it would be effective against the centurions and the bio-cylons that stalked the halls of the command ship. Firing Flechette rounds from a fifty round drum magazine, and with an adjustable stock and forgrip, the X-6 was a formidable tool. Eoin finished tinkering with the laser sight he had added to the weapon and the flashlight that had also been added.

The dark gray metal of the ship's hull loomed before them and blotted out the light from the young star. The raptors settled one by one into the large hull breach, and the assault teams disembarked.

"Alpha, Bravo and Constellation squads on me," Eoin ordered, "Delta, Echo and Foxtrot squads are to find and secure the ship's reactor for detonation." The squads began to move out.

Eoin lead his three squads through the bark gray interior of the ship, looking for any kind of prison cells. The only light was their torches and the faint floor level lighting of the command ship, that were clearly running on battery power.

"Don't suppose they have a 'you are here?' kind of thing?" a marine quipped, drawing a small amount of laughter from the group. Eoin himself gave a small smile, which was cut short when they heard the familiar sounds of centurions stomping about. The squads got down, as the centurions came around the next corridor. Eoin fired first, the X-6 belching flechette rounds at five-hundred rounds a minute. The rounds walked up the first centurion, and it fell, before the rest of the marines opened up with fire from their suppressed TAC-17 rifles, the 5.56 millimetre rounds doing little damage by themselves, but dealing overwhelming damage in such large numbers. A second, and then third centurion fell, joining their comrade on the deck.

Eoin cursed the X-6's major drawback- it could not be suppressed. While the single X-6 wouldn't make much noise by itself, it could draw more attention than it was worth. "Move on," Eoin ordered, and the men got up and started moving down the next corridor. Before long, they came to a long room, with what looked like holding cells similar to the ones aboard modern battlestars, with thick glass walls and sliding doors. Most of them were empty, however, there were bloodied corpses in the some of the cells that looked fresh. That made Eoin angry, but none of them were Lauren. The cylons had treated these people like cattle at a slaughterhouse.

They came to the final cell in the room. And they found her.

"Lauren!" Eoin called, and the XO seemed to regain some kind of awareness. She was in a bad way. Almost completely naked and badly cut and bruised, with her hair matted with blood. A large surgical scare ran down the side of her body. Knowing the cylons they made it without anaesthetic.

"Eoin…" she replied, her voice a hoarse whisper. Eoin took the X-6 and fired three rounds into the glass door, and it shattered. While the marines watched the entrance, he walked into her cell. Taking a colonial uniform out of his backpack he set the uniform on the ground, and then used a small fusion cutter to free her from the large bracket that covered the top half of her body. He blushed slightly and looked away when he noticed she was naked from the waist up.

"Can you walk?" he asked tenderly. She nodded. "Good. We're getting you off this ship," he said as she pulled on the uniform. She shook her head.

"I can't go. When… I first got here, the cylons, they… put something in me. Some kind of security device linked to a deadly neurotoxin. If I leave the ship…then this device activates and I'm dead," she answered sadly. Eoin's heart had been derailed.

"We'll cut it out or disable it or… I don't know," he whispered. She looked at him, full of sympathy. The two just stood there, before Eoin's comm. buzzed.

"What," he simply said.

"_Admiral this is Echo team! We've lost Delta and Foxtrot, and the detonator for the reactor's been fried! Only manual detonation is available now," _the Echo team leader shouted over the comm., gunfire audible in the background.

Eoin didn't know what to do.

**Battlestar **_Sola_

_Sola_ was waiting with the _Galactica_ and the _Scythe _interceptor _Hera_ near the wreckage of the cylon cruisers and basestar, while _Universia_ was with the _Nova_ and _Oceania_.

"Sir fireteams are reporting that they have found Colonel Patience but cannot get her off the ship due to some kind of inhibitor," the XO stated, and Aidan hoped that Eoin wouldn't be crushed to have come so far and then not be able to rescue her. Just then the ship's sensors started to wail as they detected a massive FTL wake. Then the whole ship shook, and consoles exploded.

"What the frak hit us?!" Aidan shouted once he had regained footing.

"New contact sir. We were caught in the FTL wake. Target is an unknown ship, four and a half kilometres long," the DRADIS officer called.

**Battlestar **_Galactica_

"Sir, a new contact has just jumped in! _Sola_ has suffered heavy damage. She was caught in the FTL wake. New contact is four and a half klicks in length, CBDR!" Gaeta shouted, bringing the cavernous CIC to attention.

"Identify!" Adama barked, as Gaeta began to run the ship through the war-book. As he looked up, a video feed appeared on the one of the DRADIS screens, showing an angular and blocky ship that dwarfed the colonial ships around it. Adama knew what it was instantly.

"I didn't think I'd see one of those again," Tigh said, awestruck. "Inform all ships, we have a Cylon _Subjugator_!" Adama shouted. He knew those ships. Three out of the five _Subjugators_ had been destroyed in the first war, and the other two had never been accounted for.

The _Subjugator_ stretched to four and a half thousand meters in length and seven hundred meters in width. What made it unique amongst cylon ships was that instead of relying entirely on missile weapons, the _Subjugator_ was armed with a mixture of railgun batteries and missile launchers. Also, while Cylons usually relied on raiders for point defense, and the colonials used flak batteries, the _Subjugators_ used more accurate (less powerful compared to flak) point defense batteries, whichconsisted of quad forty-millimetre cannons mounted in pivot-able turrets.

The huge ship had a long rectangular bow and main body, with spires rising from the dorsal surface. The engines were in pods on either side of the ship.

The cylon ship opened fire, railgun slugs and missiles flying towards the _Galactica _and the interceptor _Hera_. _Galactica'_s flak batteries stopped the missiles but the railgun slugs exploded against the hull. _Hera_ was pummelled by railgun slugs which her extensive flak systems could not stop. The interceptor was pierced by a slug, which destroyed the interceptors array of tylium reactors, and the ship exploded, debris flying in all directions.

"Sir we lost _Hera_!" Adama snarled as he heard this. "Open fire!" he yelled, and _Galactica_'s dorsal batteries opened up, slugs impacting the amour of the massive cylon ship.

"We're not doing any damage. Ship's just a hair shorter than the _Atlantia_ was!" Tigh shouted, as the railguns fired again, and again they had little effect. Tigh was right, the only ship bigger than a _Subjugator_ was the five thousand meter long Warstar _Atlantia_, although the difference between the two was that the _Subjugator_ wasn't a wreck floating with the rest of the colonial fleet.

"Sir the cylons are moving towards the command ship!" Gaeta shouted, as the _Subjugator_ pushed past _Galactica_ and angled on the battlestars around the _Hel._

"Tell Lundy he's about to have company!" Adama called. "And keep firing!"

**Starbuck's Viper Mark II**

Starbuck had no idea what she was going to do against such a big ship. _Sola_ and _Galactica_'s main batteries had barely scratched the ship, and it seemed to be invincible.

_Not to a hare-brained viper pilot,_ she thought to herself. She flipped her viper around and flew towards the huge ship. She was ten klicks from the ship when a trio of PD guns opened up, forty millimetre shells flying towards her. Using her ship's RCS thrusters she dodged the stream of cannon fire, and then she squeezed the trigger, and her Viper fired two streams of thirty-mil shells that tore into the PD turrets, which exploded in three fireballs.

_Because destroying point-defense guns is going to help us beat this thing._

She noticed an open hangar in the bow of the ship, and she flew in, destroying another pair of PD turrets. As she entered the hangar, fear overcame her.

_What am I doing?_

She flew through the hangar at a low speed. The hangar was unpressurized and lacked artificial gravity. With puffs from her RCS thrusters she looked around for possible targets.

_No…No…No…Wait!_

A heavy raider refuelling station. She armed her missiles, waited for the lock, and then fired. She didn't wait to see the results as she turned around and flew out of the hangar, before a massive explosion shook her ship. She narrowly avoided the fireball that tore out of the ship. Along the hull of the _Subjugator_, explosions tore their way out as a chain reaction started it's deadly work.

"That's my girl," Adama said to himself as the hull of the _Subjugator_ became an inferno. But the massive ship wasn't out of the fight. It jumped…

…And reappeared a few hundred meters from the cylon command ship. It immediately laid down a withering barrage upon the colonial ships clustered around the command ship. They fired back, the rounds tearing into the weakened skin of the _Subjugator._ Space was alight as missiles and railgun slugs crossed paths. _Oceania_ suffered heavy damage to her bow, courtesy of five railgun slugs.

**Cylon command ship**

Eoin and his squad had fought their way to the main reactor, where the explosives were ready to go. Stepping over the corpses of Echo and Foxtrot team, they fought their way in, gunning down centurions and bio-cylons alike.

"_Admial, the cylon subjugator is right beside the command ship! We're holding it at bay for now but I don't know for how much longer!"_ Commander Kavanagh's voice said through Eoin's communications headset.

"We're at the main reactor! Just a little longer!" he replied, cutting down the last centurion with his X-6. Lauren put her hand on Eoin's shoulder.

"Eoin… I'll stay and detonate the bomb," she said. Eoin gave a look of pure disbelief. "No you won't!"

"I can't leave the ship, Eoin. It has to be me. Don't you see how badly the cylons want their command ship back?" she said, referring to the _Subjugator_. Eoin shook his head.

"I'll stay with you and press the plunger," he said firmly, but she shook her head. "The fleet needs a military leader, and that's you. Go!" she shouted that last word.

"No… I'll kick you onto that Raptor if I have to. Now go!" Eoin looked at the resolve in her eyes. He nodded meekly.

"See you on the other side," she said, and the two of them shared an embrace. With one last look, Eoin led the rest of the team out of the reactor chamber. She gave him a final smile.

"I…," he couldn't say the words. The three words he had always wanted to say. He gave a sad smile in return and then simply left the reactor chamber.

As the Raptors flew from the _Hel_ and into _Universia_'s flight pod, the ships began to move away from the command ship. Then he saw.

The ship exploded, a massive explosion that caused his eyes to water. From the explosion or from her death, he didn't know. The massive explosion caught the _Subjugator_, which was also destroyed, the debris from the two ships mixing in with each other. The battlestars jumped, reappearing beside the _Galactica_ and _Sola._

**The Colony**

Cavil could be compared to a supervolcano by now.

"You're telling me… That a small group of battlestars destroyed a _Subjugator_, and a command ship?" he said with barely controlled rage.

The five nodded.

"The loss of the command ship will slow down our pursuit. But we'll find them," the two said. Cavil sighed.

"Initiate the plan."

**Thanks for reading. As I said, I've gone back and made edits and added more story for the first and second chapters. Also, sorry this update took so long.**

**To answer a question I received in a PM, this will eventually be a crossover with something only I know.**

**Factfile- Starfire missile**

**The M101 StarFire missile is a missile that uses a rare element known as Novalisum that is only found on three of the twelve Colonies. Novalisum is incredibly high-yield, with the small amounts fitted in the warhead of the StarFire capable of fity kilotons worth of damage. Universia carries just one hundred of these deadly missiles, with most other ships having less. The StarFire can be split into five StarFury sub-munitions.**


End file.
